We present evidence from a randomized field experiment in rural Mongolia to assess the poverty impacts of a joint-liability microcredit program targeted at women. We find a positive impact of access to group loans on female entrepreneurship and household food consumption but not on total working hours or income in the household. A simultaneously introduced individual-liability microcredit program delivers no significant poverty impacts. Additional results on informal transfers to families and friends suggest that joint liability may deter borrowers from using loans for noninvestment purposes with stronger impacts as a result. We find no difference in repayment rates between both types of microcredit.
Authors
![Orazio Attanasio](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/Orazio_Attanasio.jpg?itok=Anbs4JXx)
Research Fellow
Orazio is an International Research Fellow at the IFS, a Professor at Yale and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
![Emla Fitzsimons](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Emla%20Fitzsimons.jpg?itok=dRO7usQ4)
Research Fellow University College London
Emla Fitzsimons is a Professor of Economics at the University College London Institute of Education and a Research Fellow at the IFS.
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
Heike Harmgart
![Britta Augsburg](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/Britta_Augsburg.jpg?itok=xID4yUz7)
Associate Director
Britta is an IFS Associate Director, Associate Staff at the Department of Economics at the UC and Researcher at NIHR Obesity Policy Research Unit.
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
Ralph De Haas
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1257/app.20130489
- Publisher
- American Economic Association
- JEL
- G21, I32, I38, J16, L26, O15, O16
- Issue
- January 2015
Suggested citation
Attanasio, O et al. (2015). 'The Impacts of Microfinance: Evidence from Joint-Liability Lending in Mongolia' (2015)
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