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on Microfinance |
| By: | Thorsten Beck; Patrick Behr; Andreas Madestam |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of group identity in the credit market. Exploiting the quasi-random assignment of first-time borrowers to loan officers of a large Albanian lender, we test for own-gender bias in the loan officer-borrower match. We find that borrowers pay on average 29 basis points higher interest rates when paired with a loan officer of the other sex. The results indicate the presence of a taste-based rather than a statistical bias, as borrowers’ likelihood of going into arrears is independent of loan officer gender. Ending up with an opposite-sex loan officer also affects demand for credit, with borrowers being 11.5 percent less likely to return for a second loan. The bias is more pronounced when the social distance, as proxied by difference in age between the loan officer and the borrower, increases and when financial market competition declines. This is consistent with theories that predict a taste-based bias to be stronger when the psychological costs of being biased are lower and the disretion in setting interest rates is higher. Taken together, the findings suggest that own-gender preferences can have substantial welfare effects. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:411&r=mfd |
| By: | Marcel Fafchamps; David McKenzie; Simon Quinn; Christopher Woodruff |
| Abstract: | Standard models of investment predict that credit-constrained firmd should grow rapidly when given additional capital, and that how this capital is provided should not affect decisions to invest in the business or consume the capital. We randomly gave cash and in-kind grants to male- and female- owned microenterprises in urban Ghana. Our findings cast doubt on the ability of caoital alone to stimulate the growth of female microenterprises. First, while the average treatment effects of the in-kind grants are large and positive for both males and females, the gain in profits is almost zerp fpr women with itital profits below the median, suggesting that capital alone is not enough to grow subsistence enterprises owned by women. Second, for women we strongly reject equality of the case and in-kind grants; only in-kind grants lead to growth in business profits. The results for men also suggest a lower impact of cash, but differences between cash and in-kind grants is assoicated more with a lack of self-control than with external pressure. As a result, the manner in which funding is provided affects microenterprise growth. |
| Keywords: | microenterprises; ghana; Conditionality; Asset intergration |
| JEL: | O12 O16 C93 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2011-11&r=mfd |
| By: | Kundu, Amit; Mukherjee, Arghya Kusum |
| Abstract: | Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojona (SGSY), a government sponsored micro credit programme of India, has been designed to ameliorate income poverty among the rural poor, particularly women, through human capital development and strengthening female agency. In this backdrop the basic objectives of the paper are to see: (a) whether the programme has any impact on health of the programme participants across Socio Religious Communities (SRCs)(b) Whether the programme has any significant role in improving education across SRCs. (c) Whether SGSY programme has been able to enhance female agency irrespective of caste and community affiliation. The District of Murshidabad, West Bengal, has been chosen as the field of study. All the selected SHG members were two years old. The initial sampling was done in 2006 to know about the pre-SHG participation socio economic condition. The resurvey was conducted in 2008. The study shows that from 2004 to 2008, the programme has significant impact on female agency across all SRCs except Muslims, but the role of the programme in forming human capital is insignificant irrespective of SRCs. If household specific unobserved heterogeneity is removed, then significant impact of the programme on female agency becomes insignificant across all SRCs except UCs. |
| Keywords: | Microfinance ; SGSY Scheme of the Government of India; Unobserved heterogeneity; Fixed effects |
| JEL: | C23 I38 J16 G21 |
| Date: | 2011–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33258&r=mfd |
| By: | Supriya Garikipati |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of microcredit on male and female time use and draws on this analysis to explore the linkages between credit and women’s empowerment. A study of time use can help understand these linkages because credit targeted at women with the intent of influencing their livelihoods must also influence the way they allocate their work time. Its other advantages are that it does not suffer from much time lag and can be objectively measured. We use survey data from rural India. Our findings show that while microcredit has little impact on women’s time use, it helps their husbands shift away from wage-work, which is associated with bad pay and low status, to self-employment. We find that this is because women’s loans are typically used to enhance male ownership of household’s productive assets. Further, we find that only women who use loans in self-managed enterprises are able to allocate more time to self-employment. We conclude that if credit is to increase the value of women’s work time then it is not access to loan but use of loan that matters. Specifically, women’s control over loan created assets is critical. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/96915&r=mfd |