Most of our research projects entail the collection of primary data via survey instruments. Once CMF data sets are cleaned and analyzed they are made publicly available online and can be accessible via the Resources page
Issue #15 – Eye on Micro Finance – May 2012May 2012
Equilibrium Distributional Impacts of Government Employment Programs: Evidence from India’s Employment GuaranteeApril 2012 - Clement Imbert and John PappThis paper presents evidence on the equilibrium labor market impacts of a large rural workfare program in India. We use the gradual roll out of the program to estimate changes in districts that received the program earlier relative to those that received it later.
Index-based Weather Insurance – Exploring Demand and Take-upApril 2012 - A Mushfiq Mobarak, Lisa Nestor and Surabhi AgarwalA policy memo summarizing evidence of the existence of informal insurance networks and the extent of such informal exchanges in community level financial management when it comes to weather insurance. The study aims to provide information regarding the interaction of the informal and formal insurance markets, assessing the demand for the product.
The Urban Poor and Their Money: A Study of Cycle Rickshaw Pullers in DelhiApril 2012 - Mani NandhiThe study under MRAP explored the financial behavior of cycle rickshaw pullers in Delhi to assess their strategies and choices in saving, storing and remitting their money and the challenges and the constraints they faced in managing their money and livelihoods.
Selling Formal Insurance to the Informally InsuredMarch 2012 - A Mushfiq Mobarak and Mark RosenzweigUnpredictable rainfall is an important risk for agricultural activity, and farmers in developing countries often receive incomplete insurance from informal risk-sharing networks. We study the demand for, and effects of, offering formal index-based rainfall insurance through a randomized experiment in an environment where the informal risk sharing network can be readily identified and richly characterized: sub-castes in rural India.
Incidence of Loan Default in Group Lending ProgrammeMarch 2012 - Mani NandhiThis is a study undertaken as a part of the Microfinance Researchers Alliance Program (MRAP), a research capacity development programme run by the Centre for Micro Finance (CMF) at IFMR Research. The paper explores the reasons and costs of hidden loan delinquency, despite high group repayment rates prevalent in the group lending mechanism. In a Joint Liability Group, if one of the members fails to repay a loan fully, the responsibility falls on the other members of a group to repay the remaining amount; the risk is, thus, fully shared by the borrowers. The group lending model of a microfinance institution, located in a peri-urban region of Uttar Pradesh in North India, was studied.
Social Networks and MicrofinanceMarch 2012 - Tanay Balantrapu and Manaswini RaoThe study of how network structures influence economic activity is increasingly becoming the subject of interest within Development Economics. It has been known for a while now that patterns of social interaction influence an individual’s economic behaviour including employment, career choice, consumption, investment, risk sharing and participation in microfinance. For instance, information regarding jobs is often disseminated through social networks. Tanay and Manaswini throw more light on the research studies carried out in this area...
Access to Finance: A Functional Approach to Supply and DemandMarch 2012 - Greg FischerThis paper provides a comprehensive description of the financial environment for households and small businesses in a defined geographical region. It develops a new, functional approach to financial access surveys, which involves asking detailed questions about how respondents meet their financial needs-from purchasing inventory to paying for large medical expenses-rather than focus on a narrow set of financial products.
Five Years of Researching Financial Services for the PoorJanuary 2012 - Shardul Oza and Jagori SahaThis report, a collection of key CMF studies conducted over the last five years, is meant to serve as a reference document for policymakers, practitioners, researchers and others interested in financial services for the poor. More specifically, the studies presented here are intended to inform both general and expert audiences about current academic work being conducted in India, which has become a central hub for financial access research. The report, organized thematically, describes the organization’s current work and summarizes key findings from completed studies. The report also identifies potential areas for future research and recommends ways that financial services practice could evolve to meet the needs of low-income households.
Multiple Loans: How Frequently do Rural Poor Opt for Multiple Borrowing?January 2012 - Deepti Kc and Sebastien GachotThis study throws light on the patterns of multiple borrowing that was prevalent in Andhra Pradesh. Following up on the Access to Finance Study, CMF visited 428 households in two districts of Andhra Pradesh. 36% of 428 households (153 households) that were visited reported taking more than one loan within two successive months in the past year. This focus note provides more insight into the behavior of these 153 households that had taken more than one loan within two successive months in the past year.
