Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women’s self-help group program on household economic well-being in India
Microfinance groups are a prominent source of small-scale rural credit in many developing countries. In India, evidence of the impact of the now ubiquitous women-only savings and credit self-help groups (SHGs) on household consumption and asset accumulation is inconclusive and based on small-scale i...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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Informa UK Limited
2023
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| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126639 |
| _version_ | 1855518197781889024 |
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| author | Raghunathan, Kalyani Kumar, Neha Gupta, Shivani Thai, Giang Scott, Samuel P. Choudhury, Avijit Khetan, Madhu Menon, Purnima Quisumbing, Agnes R. |
| author_browse | Choudhury, Avijit Gupta, Shivani Khetan, Madhu Kumar, Neha Menon, Purnima Quisumbing, Agnes R. Raghunathan, Kalyani Scott, Samuel P. Thai, Giang |
| author_facet | Raghunathan, Kalyani Kumar, Neha Gupta, Shivani Thai, Giang Scott, Samuel P. Choudhury, Avijit Khetan, Madhu Menon, Purnima Quisumbing, Agnes R. |
| author_sort | Raghunathan, Kalyani |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Microfinance groups are a prominent source of small-scale rural credit in many developing countries. In India, evidence of the impact of the now ubiquitous women-only savings and credit self-help groups (SHGs) on household consumption and asset accumulation is inconclusive and based on small-scale interventions. Further, little is known about the sustainability of impacts at scale. We use panel data on close to 2500 households from five states in India to estimate the impact of SHG membership on household expenditure and asset ownership. Over four years, we find small but significant impacts of SHG membership on household expenditure and livestock ownership. Membership duration has a modest effect, suggesting that initial impacts may taper off as the program scales up, though small sample sizes limit our ability to draw inferences. Accompanying evidence on pathways is compelling; related work shows that SHG participation improves information, empowerment, and access to entitlements. While the direct impacts of SHG membership may not suffice to fill gaps in access to credit faced by the rural poor, impacts along these additional pathways could intensify the benefits of these groups |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace126639 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | Informa UK Limited |
| publisherStr | Informa UK Limited |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1266392025-08-14T14:28:55Z Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women’s self-help group program on household economic well-being in India Raghunathan, Kalyani Kumar, Neha Gupta, Shivani Thai, Giang Scott, Samuel P. Choudhury, Avijit Khetan, Madhu Menon, Purnima Quisumbing, Agnes R. sustainability women households economics microfinance rural credit developing countries household consumption assets intervention livestock livelihoods poor poverty expenditure gender development Microfinance groups are a prominent source of small-scale rural credit in many developing countries. In India, evidence of the impact of the now ubiquitous women-only savings and credit self-help groups (SHGs) on household consumption and asset accumulation is inconclusive and based on small-scale interventions. Further, little is known about the sustainability of impacts at scale. We use panel data on close to 2500 households from five states in India to estimate the impact of SHG membership on household expenditure and asset ownership. Over four years, we find small but significant impacts of SHG membership on household expenditure and livestock ownership. Membership duration has a modest effect, suggesting that initial impacts may taper off as the program scales up, though small sample sizes limit our ability to draw inferences. Accompanying evidence on pathways is compelling; related work shows that SHG participation improves information, empowerment, and access to entitlements. While the direct impacts of SHG membership may not suffice to fill gaps in access to credit faced by the rural poor, impacts along these additional pathways could intensify the benefits of these groups 2023-04-03 2023-01-05T20:53:54Z 2023-01-05T20:53:54Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126639 en https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.09.023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2019.12.004 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233418 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105579 https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzac079 Open Access Informa UK Limited Raghunathan, Kalyani; Kumar, Neha; Gupta, Shivani; Thai, Giang; Scott, Samuel; Choudhury, Avijit; Khetan, Madhu; Menon, Purnima; Quisumbing, Agnes R. 2023. Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women’s self-help group program on household economic well-being in India. Journal of Development Studies 59(4): 490-515. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2022.2154151 |
| spellingShingle | sustainability women households economics microfinance rural credit developing countries household consumption assets intervention livestock livelihoods poor poverty expenditure gender development Raghunathan, Kalyani Kumar, Neha Gupta, Shivani Thai, Giang Scott, Samuel P. Choudhury, Avijit Khetan, Madhu Menon, Purnima Quisumbing, Agnes R. Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women’s self-help group program on household economic well-being in India |
| title | Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women’s self-help group program on household economic well-being in India |
| title_full | Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women’s self-help group program on household economic well-being in India |
| title_fullStr | Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women’s self-help group program on household economic well-being in India |
| title_full_unstemmed | Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women’s self-help group program on household economic well-being in India |
| title_short | Scale and sustainability: The impact of a women’s self-help group program on household economic well-being in India |
| title_sort | scale and sustainability the impact of a women s self help group program on household economic well being in india |
| topic | sustainability women households economics microfinance rural credit developing countries household consumption assets intervention livestock livelihoods poor poverty expenditure gender development |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/126639 |
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