High noon for microfinance impact evaluations: Re-investigating the evidence from Bangladesh

Duvendack, Maren ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8125-9115 and Palmer Jones, Richard (2012) High noon for microfinance impact evaluations: Re-investigating the evidence from Bangladesh. Journal of Development Studies, 48 (12). pp. 1864-1880. ISSN 0022-0388

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Abstract

Recently, microfinance has come under increasing criticism raising questions of the validity of iconic studies which have justified it, such as Pitt and Khandker. Chemin applied propensity score matching to the Pitt and Khandker data, finding different impacts, but does not disaggregate by gender of borrower. We first replicate Chemin and extend his analysis in two ways. We test the robustness of propensity score matching results to selection on unobservables using sensitivity analysis, and we investigate propensity score matching estimates of impacts by gender of borrowers. The mainly insignificant impacts of microfinance differ greatly by gender of borrower, but are all vulnerable to selection on unobservables. We are therefore not convinced that the relationships between microfinance and outcomes are causal with these data.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 1 - no poverty,sdg 5 - gender equality,sdg 8 - decent work and economic growth ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/no_poverty
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Impact Evaluation Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Gender and Development
Depositing User:	Julie Frith
Date Deposited:	22 Mar 2012 12:31
Last Modified:	23 Apr 2024 15:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/38442
DOI:	10.1080/00220388.2011.646989

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