Impact of microfinance programs in Thailand

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of microfinance programs on the income and food expenditure of farm and nonfarm households in Thailand.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs secondary data from the Thai Socioeconomic Survey (cross-sectional data from 2017 and panel data from 2012 to 2017). The cross-sectional data (2017) include 43,210 households. Panel data from the 2012 and 2017 Socioeconomic surveys (SES surveys) include 4,406 households. The estimation methods include propensity score matching (PSM) and a fixed effect (FE) model.FindingsThe result shows that village funds (VFs) have a significant negative impact on income and food expenditure for both farm and nonfarm households. The empirical results reveal that the saving groups for production (SGPs) effects are positively significant in terms of income and food expenditure, but only for farm households. The FE model result also shows that while VFs have a negative impact on income they have a positive impact on food expenditure for farm households. In contrast, SPGs have no impact on both farm and nonfarm households' income and food expenditure.Practical implicationsFarm and nonfarm households require both welfare and microfinance programs. Microfinance programs can only help these households once they have the necessary education. The government should provide social programs and business skills for these households; completion of these courses should be a pre-requisite for accessing microfinance programs.Originality/valueThis study is unique because it reveals the microfinance impact between VFs and SGPs programs so that most low-income and poor people in Thailand can access basic financial services.

The Village Fund Program and Indonesia’s 18th Sustainable Development Goal: A Bibliometric and Content Study

“…Thailand "The Million Baht Village Fund" in Thailand, launched in 2001, is a government program funding 78,000 villages and urban communities [56]. The aim is to provide working capital for the poverty-stricken [57], reduce income inequality among people experiencing poverty, and improve households' economic and social well-being [58]. VF enables most low-income and poor communities to access essential financial services [59].…”

“…The aim is to provide working capital for the poverty-stricken [57], reduce income inequality among people experiencing poverty, and improve households' economic and social well-being [58]. VF enables most low-income and poor communities to access essential financial services [59]. VF can also improve Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), which is a technical application of a certification system for agricultural production processes using advanced environmentally friendly and sustainable technologies so that the harvest products are safe for consumption, pay attention to the welfare of workers, and farming provides economic benefits for farmers [60][61][62].…”

Pengaruh Pembiayaan Ultra Mikro terhadap Kinerja Usaha dan Kesejahteraan Debitur

“…Di sisi lain, klaim bahwa kredit mikro menciptakan potensi bisnis bagi masyarakat miskin sebagai sumber pendapatan dan pemberdayaan perempuan mungkin terlalu dilebih-lebihkan (Banerjee et al, 2015). Banyak pula penelitian yang menunjukkan bahwa kredit mikro tidak berpengaruh terhadap kinerja usaha (Karlan & Zinman, 2011) dan kesejahteraan (Banerjee et al, 2015;Hemtanon & Gan, 2020), bahkan memperburuk kondisi kesejahteraan (Seng, 2018).…”

“…Variabel karakteristik individu debitur yaitu umur (Mahmud et al, 2022), jenis kelamin (Hawariyuni et al, 2014), dan pendidikan (Atmadja et al, 2018). Variabel karakteristik rumah tangga menggunakan jumlah anggota rumah tangga (Hemtanon & Gan, 2020;Mahmud et al, 2022) dan tagihan listrik bulanan (Lensink et al, 2012). Selanjutnya, mewakili karakteristik usaha, variabel kontrol yang digunakan yaitu lama usaha berjalan dan jumlah karyawan (Kachlami & Yazdanfar, 2016), jenis bidang usaha (Hawariyuni et al, 2014), dan variabel dummy apakah usaha merupakan mata pencaharian utama (Wulandari et al, 2018).…”