Compare methods

	Microfinance Impact Assessment	Cash Transfer Evaluation
Field	Development Studies	Development Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2010	1997
Originator	Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman; Banerjee, Duflo, Glennerster & Kinnan; J-PAL	PROGRESA/Oportunidades (Mexico); Santiago Levy; World Bank evaluation programmes
Type	Programme impact evaluation	Programme impact evaluation
Seminal source	Banerjee, A., Duflo, E., Glennerster, R., & Kinnan, C. (2015). The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 7(1), 22–53.	Fiszbein, A., & Schady, N. (2009). Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty. World Bank Policy Research Report. Washington, DC: World Bank. ISBN: 9780821373521
Aliases	Microcredit Impact Evaluation, Microfinance Impact Evaluation, Microcredit Impact Assessment, Microsavings Impact Assessment	CCT/UCT Impact Evaluation, Conditional Cash Transfer Evaluation, Cash Transfer Impact Assessment, Social Cash Transfer Evaluation
Related	4	4
Summary	Microfinance impact assessment is the set of methods used to measure the causal effects of small loans, savings, and related financial services — long promoted as a tool against poverty — on borrowers' income, business activity, consumption, and empowerment. After two decades in which observational studies reported large gains, a wave of randomized evaluations from around 2010 onwards, exemplified by Banerjee, Duflo, Glennerster, and Kinnan's Hyderabad study with Spandana and Karlan and Zinman's randomised credit-scoring work, delivered a more sober and credible verdict.	Cash transfer evaluation is the body of impact-evaluation practice used to measure the effects of giving money directly to poor households — conditional on behaviours such as school enrolment and clinic visits (CCTs) or unconditional (UCTs) — on consumption, schooling, nutrition, health, and broader welfare. Pioneered by Mexico's PROGRESA/Oportunidades programme in the late 1990s, which built a randomised phase-in into its rollout, the field has produced some of the most influential causal evidence in development economics and now spans dozens of countries and hundreds of studies.