|
|
|
| Registros recuperados: 27 | |
|
|
| Karlan, Dean S.; Ashraf, Nava; Yin, Wesley. |
| Female "empowerment" has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial, we examine whether access to an individually-held commitment savings product leads to an increase in female decision-making power within the household. We find positive impacts, particularly for women who have below median decision-making power in the baseline, and we find this leads to a shift towards female-oriented durables goods purchased in the household. |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital. |
| Ano: 2006 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28380 |
| |
|
|
| Karlan, Dean S.. |
| Lending to the poor is expensive due to high screening, monitoring, and enforcement costs. Group lending advocates believe lenders overcome this by harnessing social connections. Using data from FINCA-Peru, I exploit a quasi-random group formation process to find evidence of peers successfully monitoring and enforcing joint-liability loans. Individuals with stronger social connections to their fellow group members (i.e., either living closer or being of a similar culture) have higher repayment and higher savings. Furthermore, I observe direct evidence that relationships deteriorate after default, and that through successful monitoring, individuals know who to punish and who not to punish after default. |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Microfinance; Group lending; Informal savings; Social capital; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; O12; O16; O17; Z13. |
| Ano: 2005 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28522 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| Karlan, Dean S.. |
| Questions remain as to whether results from experimental economics games are generalizable to real decisions in non-laboratory settings. Furthermore, important questions persist about whether social capital can help solve seemingly missing credit markets. I conduct two experiments, a Trust game and a Public Goods game, and a survey to measure social capital. I then examine whether behavior in the games predicts repayment of loans to a Peruvian group lending microfinance program. Since the structure of these loans relies heavily on social capital to enforce repayment, this is a relevant and important test of the games, as well as of other measures of social capital. I find that individuals identified as "trustworthy" by the Trust game are in fact less... |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Trust game; Experimental economics; Microfinance; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; B4; C9; D8; O1. |
| Ano: 2005 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28429 |
| |
|
|
| Ashraf, Nava; Karlan, Dean S.; Yin, Wesley. |
| Informal lending and savings institutions exist around the world, and often include regular door-to-door deposit collection of cash. Some banks have adopted similar services in order to expand access to banking services in areas that lack physical branches. Using a randomized control trial, we investigate determinants of participation in a deposit collection service and evaluate the impact of offering the service for micro-savers of a rural bank in the Philippines. Of 137 individuals offered the service in the treatment group, 38 agreed to sign-up, and 20 regularly used the service. Take-up is predicted by distance to the bank (a measure of transaction costs of depositing without the service) as well as being married (a suggestion that household bargaining... |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Savings behavior; Microfinance; Field experiment; Savings mobilization; Deposit collector; Financial Economics; D1; D9; G1; G2; O1. |
| Ano: 2005 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28502 |
| |
|
|
| Karlan, Dean S.; Zinman, Jonathan. |
| Expanding credit access is a key ingredient of development strategies worldwide. Microfinance practitioners, policymakers, and donors have ambitious goals for expanding access, and seek efficient methods for implementing and evaluating expansion. There is less consensus on the role of consumer credit in expansion initiatives. Some microfinance institutions are moving beyond entrepreneurial credit and offering consumer loans. But many practitioners and policymakers are skeptical about unproductive lending. These concerns are fueled by academic work highlighting behavioral biases that may induce consumers to over borrow. We estimate the impacts of a consumer credit supply expansion using a field experiment and follow-up data collection. A South African... |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Financial Economics. |
| Ano: 2007 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9279 |
| |
|
|
| Karlan, Dean S.; Valdivia, Martin. |
| Los debates académicos y de políticas acerca de la actividad microempresarial se centran frecuentemente en las restricciones crediticias, asumiendo que los negocios se manejan de manera óptima dadas esas y otras restricciones. Los microempresarios, sin embargo, raramente tienen capacitación formal en gestión empresarial. Por su parte, un número creciente de instituciones de microfinanzas (IMF), en el Perú y el mundo, procura construir el capital humano de estos microempresarios para mejorar sus niveles de vida, contribuyendo a su misión de reducir la pobreza. Con ayuda de un diseño experimental, en este estudio medimos el impacto marginal de agregar un componente de capacitación en gestión empresarial a un programa de servicios financieros que atiende a... |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Microempresarios; Microfinanzas; Pequeñas empresas; Mujeres; Capacitacion; Small enterprises; Training; Women; Peru; Financial Economics; C93; D12; D13; D21; I21; J24; O12. |
| Ano: 2010 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/91358 |
| |
|
|
| Bruhn, Miriam; Karlan, Dean S.; Schoar, Antoinette. |
| We test whether managerial human capital has a first order effect on the performance and growth of small enterprises in emerging markets. In a randomized control trial in Puebla, Mexico, we randomly assigned 150 out of 432 small and medium size enterprises to receive subsidized consulting services, while the remaining 267 enterprises served as a control group that did not receive any subsidized training. Treatment enterprises were matched with one of nine local consulting firms and met with their consultants once a week for four hours over a one year period. Results from a follow-up survey, conducted after the intervention, show that the consulting services had a large impact on the performance of the enterprises in the treatment group: monthly sales went... |
| Tipo: Working Paper |
Palavras-chave: Enterprise growth; Entrepreneurship; Managerial capital; Labor and Human Capital; D21; D24; L20; M13; O12. |
| Ano: 2012 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121675 |
| |
|
| |
|
|
| Ashraf, Nava; Gine, Xavier; Karlan, Dean S.. |
| In much of the developing world, many farmers grow crops for local or personal consumption despite export options which appear to be more profitable. Thus many conjecture that one or several markets are missing. We report here on a randomized controlled trial conducted by DrumNet in Kenya that attempts to help farmers adopt and market export crops. DrumNet provides smallholder farmers with information about how to switch to export crops, makes in-kind loans for the purchase of the agricultural inputs, and provides marketing services by facilitating the transaction with exporters. The experimental evaluation design randomly assigns pre-existing farmer self-help groups to one of three groups: (1) a treatment group that receives all DrumNet services, (2) a... |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Field Experiment; Export Crop; Food Safety Standards; Agricultural and Food Policy; O12; Q17; F13. |
| Ano: 2008 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/46516 |
| |
|
|
| Bertrand, Marianne; Karlan, Dean S.; Mullainathan, Sendhil; Shafir, Eldar; Zinman, Jonathan. |
| Numerous laboratory studies report on behaviors inconsistent with rational economic models. How much do these inconsistencies matter in natural settings, when consumers make large, real decisions and have the opportunity to learn from experiences? We report on a field experiment designed to address this question. Incumbent clients of a lender in South Africa were sent letters offering them large, short-term loans at randomly chosen interest rates. Psychological features on the letter, which did not affect offer terms or economic content, were also independently randomized. Consistent with standard economics, the interest rate significantly affected loan take-up. Inconsistent with standard economics, the psychological features also significantly affected... |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Behavioral economics; Psychology; Microfinance; Marketing; Field experiment; Credit markets; Consumer/Household Economics; D01; C93; D12; D21; D81; D91; M37; O12. |
| Ano: 2005 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28441 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| Karlan, Dean S.; McConnell, Margaret. |
| Theories abound for why individuals give to charity. We conduct a field experiment with donors to a Yale University service club to test the impact of a promise of public recognition on giving. Some may claim that they respond to an offer of public recognition not to improve their social standing, but rather to motivate others to give. To tease apart these two theories, we conduct a laboratory experiment with undergraduates, and found no evidence to support the alternative, altruistic motivation. We conclude that charitable gifts increase in response to the promise of public recognition primarily because of individuals' desire to improve their social image. |
| Tipo: Working Paper |
Palavras-chave: Prosocial behavior; Experiments; Voluntary contributions; Financial Economics; Public Economics; D64; C90; L30. |
| Ano: 2012 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/121670 |
| |
|
|
| Ashraf, Nava; Karlan, Dean S.; Yin, Wesley. |
| Commitment devices for savings could benefit those with self-control as well as familial or spousal control issues. We find evidence to support both motivations. We examine the impact of a commitment savings product in the Philippines on household decision making power and self-perception of savings behavior, as well as actual savings. The product leads to more decision making power in the household for women, and likewise more purchases of female-oriented durable goods. We also find that the product leads women who appear time-inconsistent in a baseline survey to self-report being a disciplined saver in the follow-up survey. For impact on savings balances, we find that the 81% increase in savings after one year did not crowd out savings held outside... |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Consumer/Household Economics. |
| Ano: 2006 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28399 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| Gine, Xavier; Jakiela, Pamela; Karlan, Dean S.; Morduch, Jonathan. |
| Microfinance has been heralded as an effective way to address imperfections in credit markets. From a theoretical perspective, however, the success of microfinance contracts has puzzling elements. In particular, the group-based mechanisms often employed are vulnerable to free-riding and collusion, although they can also reduce moral hazard and improve selection. We created an experimental economics laboratory in a large urban market in Lima, Peru and over seven months conducted eleven different games that allow us to unpack microfinance mechanisms in a systematic way. We find that risk-taking broadly conforms to predicted patterns, but that behavior is safer than optimal. The results help to explain why pioneering microfinance institutions have been moving... |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Financial Economics. |
| Ano: 2006 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/28520 |
| |
| Registros recuperados: 27 | |
|
|
|
