Thesis advisor: Richard McGowan / The author focuses on property formalization, microfinance and their effects on empowering the poor in Peru. For this purpose, the author will first analyze the economic and social conditions in which the microfinance initiative has taken place in Peru as well as its informal economy. Then, the author will explain the advantages and disadvantages that microfinance and property formalization have had as economic tools used to confront the problem of collateral. The author argues that both economic tools, if used together, may have a greater impact in the poor’s economic empowerment. The poor’s economic empowerment will be understood as the decrease in interest rates in the microfinance sector. Hence, Peruvian Microfinance Institutions – represented by Peru’s leading MFI “Microfinanzas Prisma – will be analyzed through regression analyses with intervention variables to simulate the correlations between collateral and interest rates in the microfinance sector. The results demonstrate that formal property, although correlated with interest rates up to a certain point, may not have a significant correlation with interest rates beyond that point. The author will finally interpret the results of the empirical analyses and will make some recommendations that could be implemented as development policies. A proposal would be based on the joint use of microfinance and formal property to further decrease interest rates and therefore empower the individuals borrowing below the point at which collateral has no significance correlation with interest rates. Concepts such as social capital and community organization will be addressed to further enhance the impact of collateral on interest rates. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_102226 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Zapatel Malpartida, Alvaro A. |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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