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on Development |
| By: | Sawada, Yasuyuki; Aida, Takeshi; Griffen, Andrew S; Kozuka, Eiji; Noguchi, Haruko; Todo, Yasuyuki |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the role of School Management Committees (COGES) in Burkina Faso. These committees include elected members of each community, and are tasked with setting and implementing annual school plans. The study adopted a hybrid evaluation method incorporating a randomized controlled trial and a large-scale artefactual field experiment a la Levitt and List (2007) on public goods with monetary rewards, to closely examine unexplored issues impacting on the sustainability of community-driven projects, and to identify at least partially the mechanisms of this sustainability. We found that the COGES project significantly increased social capital in the form of voluntary contributions to public goods, especially by linking those that people can be connected to vertically. On average, the direct increase in voluntary contributions to public goods from the implementation of the COGES project was between 8.0 and 10.2%. For groups composed of school principals, teachers, and parents, the average contribution increased by between 12.7 and 24.1% through the democratic election of school management committee members, and by between 11.0 and 17.2% through the implementation of the COGES project. These results suggest that community management projects can improve local cost recovery by increasing local contributions of public goods, potentially leading to better fiscal sustainability in community-driven projects. Moreover, the results based on our hybrid experiments are largely in line with real-world decisions observed in the schools under our investigation. As a byproduct, our findings are supportive of models of other-regarding preferences. |
| Keywords: | school-based management , randomized controlled trials , artefactual field experiments , public goods game , social capital , sustainability of development project |
| Date: | 2016–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:120&r=dev |
| By: | Jaime Torres, Mónica Marcela (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Carlsson, Fredrik (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates direct and spillover effects of a social information campaign aimed at encouraging residential water savings in Colombia. The campaign was organized as a randomized field experiment, consisting of monthly delivery of consumption reports, including normative messages, for one year. Results indicate that social information and appeals to normbased behavior reduce water use by up to 6.8% in households directly targeted by the campaign. In addition, we find evidence of spillover effects: households that were not targeted by the campaign reduced water use by 5.8% in the first six months following the intervention. Nevertheless, neither direct nor spillover effects can be attributed to social networks for any of our chosen proxies of social and geographic proximity. |
| Keywords: | Peer effects; social norms; randomized evaluation; water utilities |
| JEL: | C93 D03 L95 O12 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0652&r=dev |
| By: | R. Oystein Strøm; Bert D'Espallier; Roy Mersland |
| Abstract: | This research advances the hypothesis that female leaders – chief executive officers (CEOs), chairs, and directors – of a microfinance institution (MFI) give more priority to the poorest families in loan provision than male leaders do. We differentiate between a depth and a width dimension of financial inclusion. The data set is a unique global panel of MFIs collected from MFI raters’ reports. Our sample is also unique in the sense that about one-third of all MFIs have a female CEO. The problem of endogeneity for the female leader is resolved by running Heckman’s two-step endogenous dummy variable estimation with an instrument for the female leader. We find evidence of greater depth financial inclusion (smaller average loans, more gender bias) with a female leader but not for width financial inclusion (credit client growth). Female leaders exhibit greater altruism and greater competition avoidance but not greater risk aversion than male peers. |
| Keywords: | Female leadership; financial access; microfinance institutions; cross-country panel data |
| JEL: | G34 M12 M14 |
| Date: | 2016–03–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/228650&r=dev |
| By: | Francis Awuku Darko |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the possibility of mission drift in microfinance; a situation where Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) move away from targeting the poor and towards better-off clients. Using two different measures of poverty, the paper examines whether microfinance institutions in Uganda follow a developmental objective by expanding their access to poorer districts; and if the pattern observed varies across different types of MFIs. The analysis is conducted on 118 MFIs over the period 2009-2013; adopting a static count data model and dynamic regression approach. We find that MFIs in Uganda are more likely to target richer districts during earlier years; however, poorer districts tend to catch up over time. This finding suggests that MFIs may wish to signal an improved financial performance by first establishing branches in better-off districts and then only later reaching out to poorer districts, employing cross-subsidisation. We also show that Commercial Bank MFIs are more likely to increase their presence in poorer districts than other types of MFIs, suggesting that protection against regulation and greater access to capital markets may make commercial MFIs the most qualified institutions to expand outreach to the unbanked segment of the world’s poorer population. |
| Keywords: | microfinance, poverty, mission drift, count data model |
| JEL: | G21 I32 C25 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1603&r=dev |
| By: | Fiala, Nathan (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | Microenterprises are a major contributor to income and employment in developing countries. There is growing evidence though that they do not expand beyond their intitial start-up point. I present the results of a randomized experiment with microenterprise owners in Uganda designed to explore the constraints to this growth. Business owners were randomly selected to receive loans, cash grants, business skills training, or a combination of these programs. I find that men with access to loans and training report significantly higher profits. The loan-only intervention had some initial impact, but this does not last. There are no impacts from the grant intervention, and no effects for women from any of the interventions. While recent research has found little effect from microfinance, I argue this is because men are not included in the studies. The results from this experiment suggest that male owned businesses can expand from microfinance. |
| Keywords: | Economic development, microenterprises, microfinance, cash grants, entrepreneurship training, credit constraints |
| JEL: | O12 O16 C93 J16 L26 M53 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zwi:wpaper:29&r=dev |