Symbiosis of Microcredit and Private Moneylending in Cambodia

Microcredit's potential for poverty reduction is a highly contested issue. In Cambodia, the dramatically increasing commercial microcredit coexists with widespread private moneylending. These two practices are rooted in different economic world views: neoliberalism on the one hand, and the traditional Khmer economic sociality permeated by patronage on the other. The ethnography shows that far from competing with each other, microcredit and private lending have adapted to form a symbiotic relationship, and much private lending is financed through microcredit. While microcredit is often beneficial to people living well above the poverty line, the widespread access to credit, through microloans as well as private lending, is threatening the livelihoods of the economically most vulnerable and precipitating their social, economic and spatial exclusion from their local communities. In contrast to the social and economic exclusion caused by land grabbing and forced evictions, which has received a fair amount of public attention, exclusion as a consequence of indebtedness has, for sociocultural reasons, remained much less visible.     

农村小额信贷问题研究综述

农村小额信贷在我国已经发展了近20年,如今可见的研究成果可谓浩如烟海,因此有必要做一番梳理和分析,以便在前人的成果上进一步探讨小额信贷以及农村金融问题。而这些成果的分类界限还是比较清晰的,主要有三类:宏观研究、具体问题分析和实践调查。这三类成果各有所长,总体而言无论理论框架、实情描述、原因分析还是政策建议都已经有了比较全面的分析,并且纵向排列这些成果,可以反映出小额信贷的发展历程,这无论对于研究的深入还是小额信贷的完善都是大有裨益的。     

Sustaining Small Entrepreneurs Through a Microcredit Program in Penang,Malaysia: A Case Study

Microcredit has been recognized as one of the most efficient tools for alleviating poverty by the United Nations considering its significant contribution in terms of job creation and revenue generation for governments. Microcredit programs can change the lives of people and revitalize communities in the world’s poorest as well as the richest countries. This study looks at 350 entrepreneurs who joined the scheme of various microcredit programs in Penang, Malaysia. In this study, findings have been obtained that show that microcredit loans have successfully increased entrepreneur income, have positive impacts on business, and fulfill basic needs of entrepreneurs.     

面向农户与农村中小企业的微型信贷机制研究——兼论广东小额贷款的存续机制

立足于弱势市场信贷机制的基础上,分析了基于农户与农村中小企业的微型信贷市场分离均衡现象,并建立了贷款需求者的均衡选择模型、信贷机构贷款供给路径模型和银行预期利润函数,研究了微型信贷发展的可持续性问题;通过相关参数的特征分析,论证了信贷机构期望收益的最优路径。在模型分析的基础上,研究了广东小额信贷市场的存续机制;并针对小额贷款公司自身发展的特征,从风险防范、示范效应与政策激励方面提出了相关建议。     

Microfinance institutions and efficiency

Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) are special financial institutions. They have both a social nature and a for-profit nature. Their performance has been traditionally measured by means of financial ratios. The paper goes beyond simple financial ratios using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to measure the efficiency of MFIs.     

The Elasticity of Demand for Microcredit: Evidence from Latin America

Microcredit demand is frequently assumed to be inelastic, yet understanding the price elasticity of demand for microcredit is highly relevant in designing appropriate microfinance institution (MFI) financial products and policy. This article extracts loan demand schedules and elasticities of MFI borrowers in the Dominican Republic using a unique survey instrument. We analyse the intensive margin of microcredit demand and find that client demand elasticities are not homogeneous and are correlated with certain borrower characteristics. Overall results suggest that these micro‐entrepreneurs, who have already entered the MFI market, have close to unit elastic demand for microcredit. The mean demand elasticity for our sample is ‐1.0.     

Impact of microcredit on rural household welfare and economic growth in Vietnam

Since its birth in 1970s, microcredit has been growing rapidly with the aim to reduce poverty and to promote economic growth. Using the large panel data of the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Surveys, the objectives are twofold: (i) to evaluate the micro-impact of microcredit on rural household economy, particularly on output value and net income of rural households, using Matched Difference-in-Difference method; and (ii) to evaluate its macro-impact on economic growth, especially the aggregate effect of production increase and income growth, using Input–Output analysis. The results at micro level find that microcredit benefits self-employment rather than other economic activities of households. The salient results from the macro-economic analysis reveal that, not as expected, the effect of microcredit on output increase is not so large. The findings suggest that microcredit is an effective development strategy at both micro and macro levels, thus the Vietnamese government should enact the relevant policies to enhance the effectiveness and outreach of microcredit.     

Microcredit Self-Help Groups for Widowed and Abandoned Women in South India: Do They Help?

ABSTRACT

Results are presented from a study on a microcredit program with self-help groups implemented for widowed and abandoned women in Tamil Nadu shortly after the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Data were collected from 109 participants measuring the women's investment patterns, loan amounts, demographics, and overall well-being (psychological, economic, communal, and familial). Results indicate that loan amounts and investment patterns were not significantly related to the women's well-being. Length of group participation and having children were negatively related to the women's well-being. These findings are discussed in relation to social and cultural contexts. Suggestions for programs for this population of vulnerable women and other marginalized groups are proposed.