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Journal of Political Economy Vol. 106 No. 5 1998

The impact of Group‐Based Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter?

Mark M. Pitt1; Shahidur R. Khandker2

1 John Brown University · 2 World Bank

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of participation, by gender, in the Grameen Bank and two other group‐based micro credit programs in Bangladesh on labor supply, schooling, household expenditure, and assets. The empirical method uses a quasi‐experimental survey design to correct for the bias from unobserved individual and village‐level heterogencity. We find that program credit has a larger effect on the behavior of poor households in Bangladesh when women are the program participants. For Example, annual household consumption expenditure increases 18 taka for every 100 additional taka borrowed by women from these credit programs, compared with 11 taka for men.

DOI
10.1086/250037
Volume
106
Issue
5
Pages
958-996
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

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