In the next section, we offer an overview of the economic logic behind microfinance institutions, describe how the movement from socially oriented non-profit microfinance institutions to for-profit microfinance has occurred, and lay out some of the unanswered questions about the role of commercialization in microfinance. We then seek answers to some of these questions by drawing on a data set that includes most of the world’s leading microfinance institutions. The evidence suggests that investors seeking pure profits would have little interest in most of the institutions we see that are now serving poorer customers. This evidence, and.
