Socially Disadvantaged Groups and Microfinance in India

Jean-Marie Baland, Rohini Somanathan and Lore Vandewalle

No 1117, Working Papers from University of Namur, Department of Economics

Abstract: In this paper we provide an empirical analysis of the performance of microfinance groups, known as Self-Help groups, based on an original census we carried out in a poor area of Northern India. We examine whether traditionally disadvantaged villagers, such as members of lower castes or landless farmers, are less likely to have access to groups. We also analyze their performance in terms of access to bank loans, which is an important benefit of the groups. We nd evidence of the attrition process being selective against lower castes: they have a lower probability of becoming a permanent member of a group. The net effects in terms of their expected access to a bank loan remain however relatively limited. By contrast, even though landless farmers are more likely to fail or leave the groups, they tend to bene t disproportionately. In expected terms, they receive more than two times the amounts of bank loans given to farmers owning more than one acre. Overall, the program therefore has positive and important distributional implications.

Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2011-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-dev and nep-mfd
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.fundp.ac.be/eco/economie/recherche/wpseries/wp/1117.pdf First version, 2011 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Socially Disadvantaged Groups and Microfinance in India (2019)
Working Paper: Socially Disadvantaged Groups and Microfinance in India (2017)
Working Paper: Socially Disadvantaged Groups and Micro-finance in India (2017)
Working Paper: Socially Disadvantaged Groups and Microfinance in India (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nam:wpaper:1117

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Namur, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by François-Xavier Ledru ().