Microfinance and gender inequality: cross-country evidence

Quanda Zhang and Alberto Posso ()

Applied Economics Letters, 2017, vol. 24, issue 20, 1494-1498

Abstract: Microfinance enables poor women to engage in income-generating activities, which helps them become financially independent, strengthening their decision-making power within the household and society. Consequently, microfinance has the potential to reduce gender inequality (GI). Case-study evidence from across the developing world both supports and contradicts this hypothesis. We therefore revisit this issue using macroeconomic cross-country panel data for 64 developing economies over the period 2003–2014. We find that women’s participation in microfinance is associated with a reduction in GI. However, regional interactions reveal that cultural factors are likely to influence the GI–microfinance nexus.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2017.1287851

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