W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 4-2016 Equitable Distribution of Microfinance: How language, ethnicity, and religion affect access to microcredit loans Hallie Elizabeth Westlund College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Growth and Development Commons, Income Distribution Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, International Relations Commons, Other International and Area Studies Commons, Political Economy Commons, Political Theory Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, and the Regional Economics Commons Recommended Citation Westlund, Hallie Elizabeth, "Equitable Distribution of Microfinance: How language, ethnicity, and religion affect access to microcredit loans" (2016). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 925. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/925 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Equitable Distribution of Microfinance? How language, ethnicity, and religion affect access to microcredit loans. Hallie Westlund Government Honors Thesis Advisor: Professor Maurits van der Veen Abstract Microfinance consists of small loans or savings given in the form of microcredit to help foster the growth of small businesses and help those who do not have access to formal financial institutions. Scholarship is mixed on whether microfinance is successful or not in lifting people out of poverty, but microfinance has been shown to help individuals run more successful businesses. Microfinance loans are not distributed equally; some regions and countries receive far more loans than others.