Browsing by Subject "Microcredit"
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Item Impact of microfinance on the schooling of children(2010-11) Chua, Peck GeeThe popularity of microfinance has surged over the last three decades. Microfinance helps transform lives of the poor with the provision of modest financial services like microcredit, savings, insurance, and money transfers, which would not have been possible via regular financial institutions as the poor lack collateral. However, research studies have shown mixed impacts of microfinance on the schooling of children. The authors of some studies even claim that microfinance programs might result in unintended consequences of adversely influencing children's schooling. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of microfinance on the schooling of children. The sub-questions of this study are organized into three prongs: available studies on the topic, overall conclusion of the studies, and key themes that emerge from the findings. The unintended consequences framework is used to frame this study because of the lack of attention given to unintended consequences despite increasing attention and large investments in microfinance as a tool to help alleviate poverty. This study uses a meta-synthesis methodology to aggregate, analyze, and synthesize 32 research studies covering a total of 46 research sites. These studies focus on over 150 microfinance programs in 27 countries, and span across five different continents. Seventy six percent of the studies have shown that microfinance programs elicit either a mixed or a positive impact on the schooling of children, especially in terms of school enrollment and education expenditure. This study synthesizes a model to show the complexity of household's decision making in the form of children's schooling, and the interaction of key variables in influencing household's perception of the value of schooling.Item Impact of microfinance on the schooling of children(2010-11) Chua, Peck GeeThe popularity of microfinance has surged over the last three decades. Microfinance helps transform lives of the poor with the provision of modest financial services like microcredit, savings, insurance, and money transfers, which would not have been possible via regular financial institutions as the poor lack collateral. However, research studies have shown mixed impacts of microfinance on the schooling of children. The authors of some studies even claim that microfinance programs might result in unintended consequences of adversely influencing children's schooling. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of microfinance on the schooling of children. The sub-questions of this study are organized into three prongs: available studies on the topic, overall conclusion of the studies, and key themes that emerge from the findings. The unintended consequences framework is used to frame this study because of the lack of attention given to unintended consequences despite increasing attention and large investments in microfinance as a tool to help alleviate poverty. This study uses a meta-synthesis methodology to aggregate, analyze, and synthesize 32 research studies covering a total of 46 research sites. These studies focus on over 150 microfinance programs in 27 countries, and span across five different continents. Seventy six percent of the studies have shown that microfinance programs elicit either a mixed or a positive impact on the schooling of children, especially in terms of school enrollment and education expenditure. This study synthesizes a model to show the complexity of household's decision making in the form of children's schooling, and the interaction of key variables in influencing household's perception of the value of schooling.Item Impact of technical assistance and microcredit among rural households in El Salvador(2013-02) Diaz Malpica, Jose YgnacioThere is an increased interest in knowing whether the provision of nonfinancial, technical services along with microcredit has a positive impact on the performance of borrowers. The combination of these services may help poor households improve their economic performance. Yet, evidence proving this proposition is scarce and results are mixed. This lack of formal evaluation is often a consequence of these services being part of integrated approaches, making the assessment of their impact difficult to disentangle from the sole impact of microcredit. This dissertation provides evidence of joint productivity impact from microcredit and technical assistance received during 1997-1999 by rural household clients of a major microcredit institution in El Salvador. We find that the use of credit has positive effects on farm productivity. It is estimated that for every 1,000 colones of additional credit received there is a 9 percent increase in the value of farm output. These results are at the high end of the range of productivity impact reported in previous studies. When technical assistance is introduced along with credit there is also a positive impact in household productivity. In addition, we find that the pattern of consumption of these two services matters. Households with repeated loans experience smaller changes in productivity than households that borrow for the first time. It is unclear why these patterns of consumption impact productivity in different ways. However, we find that credit and technical assistance contribute to productivity through different paths: increased technical efficiency, technology adoption, and economies of scale. The role of credit and technical assistance in contributing to these productivity elements is assessed through the analysis of the households' production possibility frontier. Technical efficiency improved during these years, mainly from the effect of technical assistance. In addition, we conclude that adoption of new technologies was promoted by both credit and technical assistance. There is also evidence that these households experience increasing returns to scale. Technical assistance may have contributed to the generation of these economies of scale by increasing farmers' skills. Credit may have helped farmers to expand their input use and take advantage of the economies of scale.