Author Description

In most Asian countries, there exists a dynamic informal financial sector working side by side with formal finance. Although largely hidden from view, informal finance is almost as important as formal finance, in aggregate terms. Based on a research project that examined informal finance inBangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, this study looks at the issues involved in studying each country, regional diversity within countries, and the differences between rural and urban areas. Rather than simply summarizing the five country studies, the book presents asynthesis based on a common framework that permits cross-country comparisons.