Vicious Cycle of Poverty in Haor Region of Bangladesh- Impact of Formal and Informal Credits

TL;DR

This study examines how formal and informal microcredit programs in Bangladesh's Haor region influence household livelihoods, revealing significant income and consumption improvements but questioning their overall impact on poverty reduction.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of microcredit impacts on social and economic indicators in Haor, using difference-in-difference and factor analysis methods.

Findings

Total income of borrowers increased significantly.

Non-agricultural income rose while labor sale income decreased.

Consumption expenditure increased among borrowers.

Abstract

This research attempts to explore the key research questions about what are the different microcredit programs in Haor area in Bangladesh? And do microcredit programs have a positive impact on livelihoods of the clients in terms of selected social indicators viz. income, consumption, assets, net worth, education, access to finance, social capacity, food security and handling socks etc. in Haor area in Bangladesh? Utilizing difference-in-difference and factor analysis, we explore the nature and terms of conditions of available formal and informal micro-creditss in Haor region of Bangladesh; and investigate the impact of micro-creditss on the poverty condition of Haor people in Bangladesh. The findings showed that total income of borrowers has been increased over non-borrowers (z=6.75) significantly. Among the components of income, non-agricultural income has been increased significantly on the other hand income from labor sale has been decreased significantly. Total consumption expenditure with its heads of food and non-food consumption of both formal borrowers and informal borrowers have been increased over the period 2016-2019 significantly. Most of the key informants agreed that the findings are very much consistent with prevailing condition of micro-credits in Haor region. However, some of them raised question about the impacts of micro-credits. They argued that there is no straightforward positive impact of micro-credits on poverty condition of the households.