Microcredit provides access to a loan of less than 25'000 EUR to start a business for a generally unemployed population and excluded from traditional banking channels. It is becoming increasingly important in active labor market policies in Europe, especially since the 2008 economic crisis. Its effects on access to employment and conditions of exercise of their activity by its beneficiaries, however, remain poorly understood. This reflects both the diversity of microcredit operators and that of their intervention methods as well as variability in the amounts of loans.

Yet while the French microcredit model is based on hybrid financing soliciting public funds, its development should be based on a better understanding of its performance and its social impact. If operators are showing an increasing commitment to this, governments also have a role to play in reforming and completing the collection of statistical tools related to business creation, and supporting operators in the setting of indicators and methods for monitoring shared recipients.

This Working Paper, published by the Centre d'Analyse Stratégique (CAS at the time of writing the article, which has now become « Commissariat Général à la Stratégie et à la prospective », CGSP), under the authority of the French Prime Minister, is the result of an ILO-CAS partnership to assess qualitative and societal aspects relating to the impact of professional microcredit. It formulates recommendations for a better assessment of the results of professional microcredit on employment in France.

Click the link to see full Working Paper 
French version
Le microcrédit professionnel en France: quels effets sur l’emploi?

English version
MICROCREDIT IN FRANCE: What impact does it have on employment?

Further information on this paper: see the website of CGSP (in French)

Further information on the project : see "The Social impact of Microcredit in the European Context"