Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
  • Browse All Articles
  • Popular Articles
  • Cold Call Podcast
  • Managing the Future of Work Podcast
  • About Us
  • Book
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Entrepreneurship
  • All Topics...
  • Topics
    • COVID-19
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Gender
    • Globalization
    • Leadership
    • Management
    • Negotiation
    • Social Enterprise
    • Strategy
  • Sections
    • Book
    • Podcasts
    • HBS Case
    • In Practice
    • Lessons from the Classroom
    • Op-Ed
    • Research & Ideas
    • Research Event
    • Sharpening Your Skills
    • What Do You Think?
    • Working Paper Summaries
  • Browse All
    Filter Results: (8) Arrow Down
    Filter Results: (8) Arrow Down Arrow Up
    • Popular
    • Browse All Articles
    • About Us
    • Newsletter Sign-Up
    • RSS
    • Popular
    • Browse All Articles
    • About Us
    • Newsletter Sign-Up
    • RSS

    Roth, Benjamin N.Remove Roth, Benjamin N. →

    Page 1 of 8 Results
    • 13 Mar 2023
    • Research & Ideas

    What Would It Take to Unlock Microfinance's Full Potential?

    by Jen McFarland Flint

    Microfinance has been seen as a vehicle for economic mobility in developing countries, but the results have been mixed. Research by Natalia Rigol and Ben Roth probes how different lending approaches might serve entrepreneurs better.

    • 25 Jan 2021
    • Working Paper Summaries

    India’s Food Supply Chain During the Pandemic

    by Matt Lowe, G V Nadhanael, and Benjamin N. Roth

    Policy makers in the developing world face important tradeoffs in reacting to a pandemic. The quick and complete recovery of India’s food supply chain suggests that strict lockdown measures at the onset of pandemics need not cause long-term economic damage.

    • 11 May 2020
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Targeting High Ability Entrepreneurs Using Community Information: Mechanism Design in the Field

    by Reshmaan Hussam, Natalia Rigol, and Benjamin N. Roth

    Based on a field experiment involving 1,345 microentrepreneurs in India, this study provides insight into the depth and breadth of social knowledge contained in rural and peri-urban social networks. Harnessing community information directly from a microentrepreneur’s peers helps to identify high-growth microentrepreneurs and predict their returns to capital.

    • 14 Apr 2020
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Contractual Restrictions and Debt Traps

    by Ernest Liu and Benjamin N. Roth

    Microfinance has failed to catalyze entrepreneurship in developing countries, despite abundant evidence of high return on investment opportunities. What can account for this? This study presents a theory in which firms that borrow from an informal lender may see their growth stalled and remain in the relationship indefinitely, even though they would have continued to grow in the absence of a lender.

    • 09 Apr 2020
    • Research & Ideas

    How Social Entrepreneurs Can Increase Their Investment Impact

    by Rachel Layne

    Grants or investments? Philanthropic organizations have multiple funding tools available, but choosing the wrong one can dilute the benefits, according to research by Benjamin N. Roth. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 24 Mar 2020
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Free Riding in Loan Approvals: Evidence From SME Lending in Peru

    by Irani Arraiz, Miriam Bruhn, Benjamin N. Roth, Claudia Ruiz-Ortega, and Rodolfo Stucchi

    Using data from a large Peruvian bank trying to expand credit access to small and medium enterprises, this study shows that competing lenders use one another’s loan approvals as an input into their own approval process. Such “free riding” has great impact on market outcomes and might warrant policy intervention.

    • 09 Mar 2020
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Impact Investing: A Theory of Financing Social Entrepreneurship

    by Benjamin N. Roth

    The author provides a formal definition of organizational sustainability and characterizes the situations in which a social enterprise should be sustainable. The analysis then delineates when an investment in a social enterprise delivers superior impact to a grant.

    • 22 Feb 2018
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Debt Traps? Market Vendors and Moneylender Debt in India and the Philippines

    by Dean Karlan, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Benjamin N. Roth

    Small-scale entrepreneurs throughout the developing world often rely on moneylenders for working capital but at exorbitant interest rates. Results of three experiments involving market vendors in India and the Philippines show the difficulty that small-scale entrepreneurs face in escaping usage of moneylender debt.

    • 1
    ǁ
    Campus Map
    Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
    Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
    Soldiers Field
    Boston, MA 02163
    Email: Editor-in-Chief
    →Map & Directions
    →More Contact Information
    • Make a Gift
    • Site Map
    • Jobs
    • Harvard University
    • Trademarks
    • Policies
    • Accessibility
    • Digital Accessibility
    Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College