Poverty and micro credit
The high level of economic inequality in the world today is an unacceptable. The poor people of the world lack several essential services, one of them being financial services. In order to achieve economic growth and higher incomes, capital investments are a key determinant. For capital investments...
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| Formato: | Otro |
| Lenguaje: | sueco Inglés |
| Publicado: |
2008
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| Acceso en línea: | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10885/ |
| _version_ | 1855571768805163008 |
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| author | Wetterstrand, Hanna |
| author_browse | Wetterstrand, Hanna |
| author_facet | Wetterstrand, Hanna |
| author_sort | Wetterstrand, Hanna |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | The high level of economic inequality in the world today is an unacceptable. The poor people of the world lack several essential services, one of them being financial services. In order to achieve economic growth and higher incomes, capital investments are a key determinant. For capital investments to take place, the availability of credit is of outmost importance – but this is usually what poor people lack. In the fight against poverty, micro finance has become an increasingly popular option amongst western donor agencies. There are scientific studies analysing the impact of micro credit, studies which several cases show a positive correlation between the work of micro credit institutions and positive effects on multidimensional aspects of poverty.
Guatemala is a country that ranks below average on most social indicators within Central America. The economic inequalities are enormous, leaving the indigenous Maya population far behind. With this point of departure, this master's thesis and Minor Field Study aim to measure the impact of micro credit on indigenous women in a village in the poorest region of Guatemala. Its purpose is to capture how the economic capacity has changed over time due to micro credits from a micro finance institution. In order to obtain a multidimensional picture of their situation, four additional related aspects are examined – political capacity, social capital, human capital and gender equality. In addition, a correlation analysis of the inter-relation between these aspects and economic capacity is carried out.
The results are two-sided demonstrating no general correlation between time and economic capacity, nor the four other aspects. The variables that increase with time are: construction of their houses of today, the quality of the clothes and political capacity. The reliability of the data is, however, somewhat questionable. In analysing this, a contribution is made to the ongoing discussion on how to perform impact studies on micro finance institutions as well as on how different aspects influence each other. |
| format | Otro |
| id | RepoSLU10885 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Swedish Inglés |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| publishDateSort | 2008 |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU108852017-09-21T11:19:20Z https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10885/ Poverty and micro credit Wetterstrand, Hanna Development economics and policies The high level of economic inequality in the world today is an unacceptable. The poor people of the world lack several essential services, one of them being financial services. In order to achieve economic growth and higher incomes, capital investments are a key determinant. For capital investments to take place, the availability of credit is of outmost importance – but this is usually what poor people lack. In the fight against poverty, micro finance has become an increasingly popular option amongst western donor agencies. There are scientific studies analysing the impact of micro credit, studies which several cases show a positive correlation between the work of micro credit institutions and positive effects on multidimensional aspects of poverty. Guatemala is a country that ranks below average on most social indicators within Central America. The economic inequalities are enormous, leaving the indigenous Maya population far behind. With this point of departure, this master's thesis and Minor Field Study aim to measure the impact of micro credit on indigenous women in a village in the poorest region of Guatemala. Its purpose is to capture how the economic capacity has changed over time due to micro credits from a micro finance institution. In order to obtain a multidimensional picture of their situation, four additional related aspects are examined – political capacity, social capital, human capital and gender equality. In addition, a correlation analysis of the inter-relation between these aspects and economic capacity is carried out. The results are two-sided demonstrating no general correlation between time and economic capacity, nor the four other aspects. The variables that increase with time are: construction of their houses of today, the quality of the clothes and political capacity. The reliability of the data is, however, somewhat questionable. In analysing this, a contribution is made to the ongoing discussion on how to perform impact studies on micro finance institutions as well as on how different aspects influence each other. Den ekonomiska ojämlikhet som präglar världen idag är oacceptabel. Fattiga människor saknar flertalet grundläggande tjänster, däribland de finansiella. I strävan efter ekonomisk tillväxt och ökade inkomster, spelar kapitalinvesteringar en avgörande roll, och för att dessa skall komma till stånd är tillgång till kapital ytterst viktig. Detta är dock just vad de flesta fattiga saknar. I kampen mot fattigdomen har mikrofinans blivit ett verktyg som uppmärksammats alltmer bland västerländska biståndsgivare. Det finns många studier av effekten av mikrokrediter, och i flera fall visar dess resultat en positiv korrelation mellan mikrokreditinstitutioners arbete och multidimensionella aspekter av fattigdom. Guatemala är ett land i Centralamerika som rankas under medel på de flesta sociala indikatorer. De ekonomiska ojämlikheterna är enorma och ursprungsbefolkningen, Mayaindianerna, ligger alltjämt längst ned på skalan. Med denna utgångspunkt, ämnar denna mastersuppsats och mindre fältstudie att mäta vilken påverkan mikrokrediter har på Mayakvinnor i en by i den regionen i Guatemala. Syftet är att fånga hur den ekonomiska kapaciteten förändrats med tiden som lån tagits. För att få en mer multidimensionell bild av hur deras situation har förändrats, undersöks fyra ytterligare aspekter – politisk kapacitet, socialt kapital, humankapital och jämställdhet mellan könen. Utöver detta utförs en korrelationsanalys av relationen mellan dessa aspekter och ekonomisk kapacitet. Resultaten är dubbelsidiga på så vis att de inte visar någon generell korrelation mellan tid och ekonomisk kapacitet, eller de andra fyra aspekterna. De variabler som dock ökar med tiden är: konstruktion av deras hus idag, kvaliteten på deras kläder och politisk kapacitet. Det går dock att ifrågasätta resultatens trovärdighet. När detta analyseras görs ett bidrag till den pågående diskussionen om hur effekter av mikrofinansinstitutioner mäts, liksom hur olika variabler påverkar varandra. 2008-03-12 Other NonPeerReviewed application/pdf sv https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10885/1/wetterstrand_h_170921.pdf Wetterstrand, Hanna, 2007. Poverty and micro credit : a multidimensional impact study on indigenous women in rural Guatemala. UNSPECIFIED, Uppsala. Uppsala: (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Economics <https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/view/divisions/OID-510.html> urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-s-7073 eng |
| spellingShingle | Development economics and policies Wetterstrand, Hanna Poverty and micro credit |
| title | Poverty and micro credit |
| title_full | Poverty and micro credit |
| title_fullStr | Poverty and micro credit |
| title_full_unstemmed | Poverty and micro credit |
| title_short | Poverty and micro credit |
| title_sort | poverty and micro credit |
| topic | Development economics and policies |
| url | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10885/ https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10885/ |