Who are the clients of microfinance?: evidence from the Cocoa Abrabopa Association in Ghana

• Název práce v češtině: Kdo jsou klienti mikrofinancí?: ; příklad Cocoa Abrabopa Association v Ghaně
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Who are the clients of microfinance?: ; evidence from the Cocoa Abrabopa Association in Ghana
• Klíčová slova: Mikrofinance, chudoba, klienti, socio-ekonomické charakteristiky, rozhodovací proces.
• Klíčová slova anglicky: Microfinance, poverty, clients, socio-economic characteristics, decision-making process.
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2010/2011
• Typ práce: bakalářská práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Institut ekonomických studií (23-IES)
• Vedoucí / školitel: doc. Petr Janský, M.Sc., Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem
• Datum přihlášení: 04.02.2011
• Datum zadání: 04.02.2011
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 20.06.2012 00:00
• Místo konání obhajoby: Opletalova 26
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 17.05.2012
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 20.06.2012
• Oponenti: Mgr. Svatopluk Svoboda

Zásady pro vypracování

Práce bude testovat hypotézy na empirických datech o mikrofinancích.

Seznam odborné literatury

Armendáriz de Aghion, B., Morduch, J. 2005. The Economics of Microfinance. The MIT Press, Cambridge.
Ashraf, N. 2004. Spousal Control and Intra-Household Decision Making: An Experimental Study in the Philippines. Harvard University.
Arun, Thankom and Bendig, Mirko. 2010. Microfinancial Services and Risk management. Lancashire Business School Working Papers. New Series, Volume 2, Number 1, July 2010.
Bauer, M., Chytilová, J., Morduch, J. 2010. Behavioral Foundations of Microcredit: Experimental and Survey Evidence From Rural India.
Bendig, Mirko; Giesbert, Lena and Steiner Susan. 2009. Participation in Microfinancial Markets: The Use of Insurance, Savings, and Credit in Rural Ghana. Munich Re Foundation.
Holvoet, N. 2005. The Impact of Microfinance on Decision-Making Agency: Evidence from South India. In: Development and Change 36(1): 75 – 102 (2005) Insitute of Social Studies.
Maldonado, J. H., Gonzalez-Vega, C., Romero, V. 2003. The Influence of Microfinance on the Education Decisions of Rural Households: Evidence from Bolivia. The Annual Meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association Working Paper.
Opoku, E., Dzene, R. Caria, S., Teal, F. and Zeitlin, A. 2009. Improving productivity through group lending: Report on the Impact Evaluation of the Cocoa Abrabopa Initiative. CSAE/COCOBOD April 21 2009.
Stewart, R., van Rooyen, C., Dickson K., Majoro, M. and de Wet, T. (2010) What is the impact of microfinance on poor people? A systematic review of evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. Technical report. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit. University of London.
Sulaiman, Munshi; Matin, Imran; Siddiquee, Shadat Hossain; Barua Proloy; Barua, Proloy; Alarakhaia, Safeena and Iyer, Vidya. 2006. Microfinance engagements of the “graduated” TUP members. CFPR/TUP Working Paper Series No. 9. BRAC. February 2006.

Předběžná náplň práce

Předběžná náplň práce
Microfinance institutions have experienced an amazing growth in recent years. Poor people in rural areas often do not have many possibilities to access financial services. The main aim of microfinance is to provide them with basic financial services in order to increase their standards of living.
This work should focus on clients of microfinance institutions. How is the participation in microfinance related to individual’s yield, gender, education, etc.? What are the characteristics of microfinance clients? I will use data from Ghana’s Abrabopa Initiative that provides small loans together with fertilizers to farmers and compare the results with existent works.
Majority of microfinance institutions is targeting “the poorest of the poor” and spreading the vision of microfinance as a tool for poverty alleviation. It is clear that the very poorest part of population probably cannot participate, as the microcredits are often connected with land-holding or another assets ownership. It is possible to assume that people with higher stable income will be more willing to take the risk of borrowing. What is the relation between the decision to join or not and wealth or yield?
Many microfinance organizations are also focusing on women. Their objective is to strengthen women’s empowerment. Role of women in households is often weak and is not connected with financial decision-making. However, the studies revealed that women are often more effective in terms of saving and management of finances within households. Are women more likely to become customers than men?
The decision about participating or not in microfinance is, of course, dependent on many variables. The decision-making is complex process based on both internal (psychological) and external aspects. However, we can estimate what role the characteristics, such as age, gender, education or wealth, will play in decision-making of individual farmer. It is possible to assume that people with higher yields will be more willing to take the risk of taking a loan than the less productive individuals who are more vulnerable to unpredicted events. Younger people will be more likely to take a loan, which can be seen as a future investment, than older ones, as well as more educated will more likely participate than non-educated.
The existing literature focus predominantly on microfinance and impacts of microfinance on its clients in general, however, there are several studies concerning the clients and the decision-making process. The question of determinants of participation in microfinance was discussed by Sulaiman et al. (2010), Bendig et al. (2009) or Arun et al. (2010). They examined what is the impact of certain socio-economic characteristics of farmers on their decision to take a loan or to participate in microfinance project. The question of clients, targeting techniques and decision-making was addressed also by Julie Stanton (2002), Michal Bauer, Julie Chytilová and Jonathan Morduch (2010), Claudio Golzalez-Vega (1996), Nava Ashrof (2004) or Nathalie Holvoet (2005).