Empowering Women through Microcredit in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study

Dalia Debnath, Md. Sadique Rahman, Debasish Chandra Acharjee, Waqas Umar Latif and Linping Wang
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Dalia Debnath: College of Economics, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Md. Sadique Rahman: Department of Management and Finance, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh
Debasish Chandra Acharjee: Department of Agribusiness, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh
Waqas Umar Latif: College of Economics, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Linping Wang: College of Economics, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China

IJFS, 2019, vol. 7, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: The present study was carried out to identify the determinants of microcredit accessibility by rural women households and its impact on rural women empowerment in Bangladesh. A face-to-face survey was conducted during 2018, interviewing 300 women households in two locations in Bangladesh. Descriptive statistics and econometric modeling were used to achieve the objectives. The results of the study showed that the higher annual income inversely related with the accessibility to the microcredit program, whereas family size ( P < 0.05) was positive and significantly influenced the accessibility to the microcredit program. The empirical results indicate that borrowers of microcredit have greater control over their own savings. The regression outcome also exposes that microcredit has a positive and significant impact on enhancing participation in household decision making process and women’s legal awareness. The study suggested that microcredit providers in Bangladesh should be encouraged to review their program planning and redesign loan products by putting more emphasis on higher income group women.

Keywords: microcredit; accessibility; women’s empowerment; logit regression; Bangladesh (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F2 F3 F41 F42 G1 G2 G3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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