Evidence from Ethiopia: Alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications

What is the optimal size and composition of Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives (RuSACCOs)? With these broader questions in mind, we characterize alternative formation of RuSACCOs and their implications in improving rural households’ access to financial services, including savings, credit and insu...

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Autores principales: Abay, Kibrom A., Koru, Bethlehem, Abate, Gashaw T., Berhane, Guush
Formato: Informe técnico
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: London School of Economic and Political Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147578
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author Abay, Kibrom A.
Koru, Bethlehem
Abate, Gashaw T.
Berhane, Guush
author_browse Abate, Gashaw T.
Abay, Kibrom A.
Berhane, Guush
Koru, Bethlehem
author_facet Abay, Kibrom A.
Koru, Bethlehem
Abate, Gashaw T.
Berhane, Guush
author_sort Abay, Kibrom A.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description What is the optimal size and composition of Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives (RuSACCOs)? With these broader questions in mind, we characterize alternative formation of RuSACCOs and their implications in improving rural households’ access to financial services, including savings, credit and insurance services. We find that some features of RuSACCOs have varying implications for delivering various financial services (savings, credit and insurance). We find that the sizes of RuSACCOs have nonlinear and varying implications across the various financial services that RuSACCOs provide. We also find that compositional heterogeneity among members (including diversity in wealth) improves members’ access to credit, while this has little (no) implication in improving households’ savings behavior. Similarly, strong social cohesion among members is shown to improve households’ access to financial services, particularly savings and credit access. These empirical characterizations suggest that the optimal size and composition of RuSACCOs may vary across the domains of financial services they are meant to provide. These pieces of evidence provide some new insights on how to ensure financial inclusion among smallholders in remote and rural areas, a pressing agenda and priority of policy makers in developing countries, including Ethiopia. The results also provide some insights into rural microfinancing operations and saving cooperatives which are struggling to improve their customers’ saving rates.
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spelling CGSpace1475782025-03-11T12:14:31Z Evidence from Ethiopia: Alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications Abay, Kibrom A. Koru, Bethlehem Abate, Gashaw T. Berhane, Guush wealth rural communities rural economics rural finance cooperatives size composition rural areas What is the optimal size and composition of Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives (RuSACCOs)? With these broader questions in mind, we characterize alternative formation of RuSACCOs and their implications in improving rural households’ access to financial services, including savings, credit and insurance services. We find that some features of RuSACCOs have varying implications for delivering various financial services (savings, credit and insurance). We find that the sizes of RuSACCOs have nonlinear and varying implications across the various financial services that RuSACCOs provide. We also find that compositional heterogeneity among members (including diversity in wealth) improves members’ access to credit, while this has little (no) implication in improving households’ savings behavior. Similarly, strong social cohesion among members is shown to improve households’ access to financial services, particularly savings and credit access. These empirical characterizations suggest that the optimal size and composition of RuSACCOs may vary across the domains of financial services they are meant to provide. These pieces of evidence provide some new insights on how to ensure financial inclusion among smallholders in remote and rural areas, a pressing agenda and priority of policy makers in developing countries, including Ethiopia. The results also provide some insights into rural microfinancing operations and saving cooperatives which are struggling to improve their customers’ saving rates. 2017 2024-06-21T09:23:03Z 2024-06-21T09:23:03Z Report https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147578 en London School of Economic and Political Science Abay, Kibrom A.; Koru, Bethlehem; Abate, Gashaw T.; and Berhane, Guush. Alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications: Evidence from Ethiopia. International Growth Center report F-32302-ETH-1. London, U.K.: London School of Economic and Political Science. https://www.theigc.org/publications/alternative-formation-rural-savings-and-credit-cooperatives-and-their-implications
spellingShingle wealth
rural communities
rural economics
rural finance
cooperatives
size
composition
rural areas
Abay, Kibrom A.
Koru, Bethlehem
Abate, Gashaw T.
Berhane, Guush
Evidence from Ethiopia: Alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications
title Evidence from Ethiopia: Alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications
title_full Evidence from Ethiopia: Alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications
title_fullStr Evidence from Ethiopia: Alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications
title_full_unstemmed Evidence from Ethiopia: Alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications
title_short Evidence from Ethiopia: Alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications
title_sort evidence from ethiopia alternative formation of rural savings and credit cooperatives and their implications
topic wealth
rural communities
rural economics
rural finance
cooperatives
size
composition
rural areas
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147578
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