During the last 30 years, the microfi nance industry has developed and spread around the world. Along with its development, there has been an increased focus on analyzing its impact on the wellbeing of the benefi ciaries. In Mali, microfi nance started in the 1980s, and recent successive governments were particularly interested in it as a tool for fi ghting against poverty and gender inequality. Th erefore, the implementation of microfi nance programs in this country took into account the situations of gender inequality as an important consideration.Th e gender position in the microfi nance literature fundamentally postulates the particularity of women who are viewed (as clients) as being more able to achieve high-quality performance in terms of loan repayment compared with men ( Yunus, 1997 ), and at the same time they use microfi nance services more eff ectively for household-welfare-related purposes ( Khandker, 1998( Khandker, , 2003. In this paper, we look at the gender question from the angle of impact on poverty. Our objective is to rigorously verify if the potential eff ects of microcredit on poverty reduction are of more signifi cance for female than for male benefi ciaries. Th e data set we are using comes from surveys conducted in 2007-2008 in Mali. Th is data set is of high importance because it includes gendered information on the use of microcredit, in addition to covering a large sample that compares 2400 microfinance client households among which around 70% are microcredit benefi ciaries. Since the collected data is not randomized, in order to conduct a statistically valid comparison between microcredit benefi ciaries and non-benefi ciaries, we use the statistical method of propensity score matching (PSM), which we will discuss in detail.Females benefi t in the long term while males benefi t in the short term.Only males benefi t signifi cantly in the rural areas.Our results indicate a negative, though non-signifi cant, impact of microfi nance on male benefi ciaries in urban areas.1 JEL classifi cation codes: C2, D63, G21, I32, J16. M icrofi nance in M ali has a positive impact on poverty alleviation in total and higher on female than on male benefi ciaries.

Crop insurance in the Sahel improves the access of insured farmers to resources.

This study examines the determinants of youth financial inclusion and its impacts on their willingness to become entrepreneurs in Mali. The World Bank's Global Findex database is used to perform Logit estimations and propensity score matching. We find that the financial inclusion of youth seems to be more determined by the attainment of a high level of education, employment status, living in a wealthy family, and having at least one family member with a bank account. Three factors appear as barriers to better financial inclusion of youth: the cost of financial services, the lack of money, and the perception that financial services, savings in particular, are not a necessity. The study also shows that savings and loans have a statistically significant impact on the willingness to engage in entrepreneurial activity, even in the agricultural sector. Particularly for young people, providing them with loan services seems to have more impact than other financial services on the desire to undertake agri‐entrepreneurial activity. The study recommends the strengthening of public policies aimed at expanding credit to youth because of its high impact on their willingness to engage in entrepreneurship in general and in agri‐preneurship in particular in Mali.

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