Microcredit is typically defined as the provision of small loans to impoverished borrowers who lack access to formal financial services, mainly due to lack of collateral, steady employment and/or a verifiable credit history.

Participation in the labour market provides a crucial source of income for most people. The presence of informal labour markets, and tax evasion, is a salient feature of most developing economies that has implications for the individuals, public revenues and economies more generally.

Much of the EDePo's work revolves around primary and secondary school choices in developing countries and how policies and programmes might affect such decisions.

As developing country governments increase their expenditure, additional revenues need to be raised in an efficient and equitable way. In order to help with this task, EDePo@IFS has a growing research programme on tax and social security system issues, largely focusing on middle income countries.

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes are a key component of welfare policies of governments right across the developing world.

Analysis of consumption decisions in developing countries has been a key part of EDePo research since its beginnings, and relies on high quality and detailed survey data on households' spending and consumption patterns.

Households in developing countries are subject to numerous risks such as crop losses, business failures, unemployment and illnesses.

To complement our analysis of development interventions, we research the best means of delivering these programmes.

Social networks are very important in developing countries, forming an important substitute for missing or incomplete markets.

Working in developing countries and designing questionnaires and surveys affords an important opportunity to introduce new measurement tools and test them.

Research in this area has focussed on early child development in developing countries.

This research looks at interventions to improve health and nutrition in developing countries.