Explains how the poor find solutions to their everyday financial problems by conducting year-long interviews with impoverished villagers and slum dwellers in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa - records that track penny by penny how specific households manage their money.
"A must-read book for social entrepreneurs combating global poverty. . . . Skip the latest road-to-riches screed about serving the bottom of the pyramid and throw out your white papers from the World Bank. . . . Portfolios of the Poor is your new bible."--Jonathan C. Lewis, I on Poverty
"Too often, conversations about the needs of the world's poor are based on assumptions and clichés. This important, carefully researched, and compelling book presents the facts about the poor and their relationship to finance."--Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist and The Logic of Life
"This is an important, boots-on-the-ground look at how microfinance functions in the developing world. The descriptions of how poor households manage their limited resources are exciting, raw, and novel, and I found myself unable to put the book down."--Edward Miguel, University of California, Berkeley and coauthor of Economic Gangsters
"A terrific book."
---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist
