Richard Rosenberg

Richard Rosenberg is a former senior advisor on policy issues and research at CGAP and has written or contributed to numerous CGAP publications. His areas of focus include interest rate issues, over-indebtedness, and regulation of microfinance.

His experience with microfinance spans 20 years and two dozen countries. Before joining CGAP, Rosenberg was deputy director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Center for Economic Growth and spent nine years in Latin America, managing investment promotion, privatization, pension reform, and development finance activities. He has taught in the Boulder Institute of Microfinance program since its inception. He holds a law degree from Harvard University.

By Richard Rosenberg

Research

Too Much Microcredit? A Survey of the Evidence on Over-Indebtedness

This paper is written primarily for microlenders and the institutions that fund them. We examine conceptual issues and the limited empirical evidence about over-indebtedness in microcredit markets.
Blog

Over-Indebtedness and “Unacceptable Sacrifices”

When we talk about “over-indebtedness,” we usually assume that it’s something that ought to happen pretty rarely if credit is being delivered responsibly.
Blog

Flying Blind on Over-indebtedness?

The point is not to assert that we have a generalized problem with over-indebted microborrowers. The point is that for most markets we simply don’t know.
Blog

Shaking One’s Faith in RCTs?

Gold-standard” randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are not immune: 25 percent of published RCT results are subsequently convincingly refuted.
Blog

How Sensitive Are Microfinance Clients to Interest Rates?

Many of us have thought for a long time that microcredit clients are not very sensitive to interest rates. But is that actually true?