Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation: An Empirical Reflection

The purpose of this paper is to carry out an empirical analysis of the link that exists between microfinance and poverty alleviation. The analysis is driven by literature searches on empirical works done by different researchers in different contexts. Qualitative research methodology was adopted, following a desktop approach. An empirical literature review took a centre stage in this investigation. An analysis of empirical works shows that microfinance enhances poverty alleviation despite the challenges such as the Indian Andhra Pradesh crisis. The paper is limited to a review of empirical sources of literature. A field survey, supported by an econometric analysis would have helped to generate robust results. This paper attempts to bring together the empirical works that were done in different contexts to shed light on the important relationship between microfinance and poverty. Many research works on microfinance depend upon personal anecdotes, thus this present paper attempts to compile the scattered empirical findings on microfinance and poverty alleviation.