You are working for the Poverty Reduction and Economic Development Network at The World Bank. While the Bank has been supporting microfinance initiatives for over a decade, it now wants to assess the evidence on microfinance as a poverty-reduction tool. More specifically, you have been charged with writing a short memo in which you critically assess and synthesize the evidence on the effects of microcredits on household material well-being (as measured by wealth, income, or expenditures). While there are many policy issues relevant to microfinance, you are being asked to focus solely on assessing the effects of microcredits on household material well-being