Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary In this meta-analysis what particularly stands out is the effect of microcredit on female empowerment. With respect to entrepreneurship and economic development outcomes, microcredit appears to have the most value in deprived contexts, but overall, results are highly dependent on context. A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Increasing efforts aim at economic development and the reduction of poverty in developing countries through microcredit-enabled entrepreneurship. Following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Prof. Yunus, microcredit lending has risen to prominence and the volume of microcredit loans has increased substantially. However, theory on the outcomes of this financing form is controversial. Furthermore, the academic community lacks conclusive empirical evidence about the impact of such programs. Primary empirical studies report fragmented and to a large extent contradictory results. In this meta-analysis, we empirically synthesize a total of 545 quantitative empirical findings from 90 studies conducted to date. Our findings reveal a positive impact of microcredit on key development outcomes at the level of the client entrepreneurs. Additionally, we scrutinize how the development context influences the effectiveness of microcredit and find that microcredit generally has a greater impact in more challenging contexts. With our findings we contribute to research on the nexus of entrepreneurship and economic development, and offer recommendations for practitioners and academics working on this promising frontier.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883902614001037 Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question Is microcredit (MC) a good instrument to address credit constraints, enable entrepreneurial activity, and foster individual development? How does the development context, including country-level characteristics, affect the strengths of microcredit-outcome relationships? Hypothesis 1a: MC has a positive impact on the clients' venture survival. Hypothesis 1b: MC has a positive impact on the growth of the clients' ventures. Hypothesis 1c: MC has a positive impact on the profitability of the funded ventures. Hypothesis 2: MC has a positive impact on the personal financial well-being of clients. Hypothesis 3: MC has a positive impact on the health of client entrepreneurs and their families. Hypothesis 4: MC has a positive impact on the education level of client entrepreneurs' children. Hypothesis 5: MC has a positive impact on the empowerment of women client entrepreneurs. Sample Trial population and sample selection 595 quantitative empirical findings from 90 different studies conducted on micro-finance. Synthesizes literature from both entrepreneurship and development economics, which has been conducted on the topic of microcredit, in order to develop predictions regarding the effectiveness of microcredit. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups Various Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description Various Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method Various Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Various. Among the most prominent variables: venture survival, venture growth, venture profitability, financial well-being of the clients, health of clients, education of the clients' children, and empowerment of female clients.</p> Results <p>The effect of MC on venture survival is positive (r = .10, p < .10), yet marginally significant. Thus, there is only weak support for Hypothesis 1a. Findings corroborate the expectation that MC helps entrepreneurs achieve greater growth in their ventures (r = .08, p < .01) and increased profits (r = .11, p < .05), lending support to Hypotheses 1b and 1c, respectively. The effect of MC on financial well-being of entrepreneurs is also positive (r = .16, p < .01) supporting Hypothesis 2. The effect on health and nutrition (r = .08, p < .01) as well as education (r = .05, p < .01) of the clients and their families is positive, substantiating Hypotheses 3 and 4. MC has a positive impact on female empowerment (r = .21, p < .01), providing support for Hypothesis 5. Heterogeneity across studies is high for the majority of dependent variables. The proportion of "true heterogeneity" to total variance is over 75% for the majority of variables, suggesting the need for further moderator analysis. The relationship of MC-women's empowerment is the most consistent, while results are mixed regarding the impact of contextual factors on venture and financial outcomes.</p> Intervention costs Not available. Cost benefit ratio Reference Chliova, M., Brinckmann, J., & Rosenbusch, N., 2015. 'Is Microcredit a Blessing for the Poor? A Meta-analysis Examining Development Outcomes and Contextual Considerations'. Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 467-487. Citation for use in academic references
