Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/37126 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
Diskussionsbeitrag No. 417
Publisher: 
Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Hannover
Abstract: 
This paper examines whether recently introduced village funds”, one of the largest microfinance programs ever implemented, improve access to finance. Village funds are analyzed in a cross-sectional approach in relation to competing financial institutions. We find, first, that they reach the target group of lower income households better than formal financial institutions. Second, village funds provide loans to those kinds of borrowers which tend to be customers of informal financial institutions. Third, village funds help to reduce credit constraints. Thus, village funds provide services in the intended direction. However, they do this to a quite limited degree, questioning their efficiency.
Subjects: 
informal financial institutions
microfinance
credit constraint
Thailand
Asia
JEL: 
O16
O17
G21
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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