Nº 48 (April, 2007). Ricardo Bebczuk & Francisco Haimovich. 

This  study  uses  for  the  first  time  household  survey  data  from  a  number  of  Latin American countries to investigate the degree and effects of the access to credit on the income  and  education  of  poor  households.  With  this  goal  in  mind,  multivariate regressions are run to estimate the impact of the credit to the poor on their labor income and on the probability of their children to stay at both primary and secondary school. Afterwards,  based  on  these  results,  alternative  credit  policies  are  simulated.  Much  in line with the available microcredit evidence, the study provides mixed results: while no negative effects are identified, positive and significant loadings are found in several, but not all  cases. The simulation  exercises support the claim that microcredit might be a relatively powerful but still limited tool for meeting the MDGs.