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This paper utilizes data from the China Land Economic Survey (CLES) to investigate the impact of rural cadre households on formal credit in Jiangsu Province, China. The findings demonstrate that rural cadre households are more likely to obtain formal credit compared to non-cadre households. This result is robust and supported by various mechanisms, including rural cadre households' superior financial knowledge, family assets, and social capital. The study highlights the significance of political status as a crucial factor influencing households' access to credit, thereby adding to the existing literature on household finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal credit is critical in agricultural production, allowing more expenditure and productive input, thereby improving farmers’ welfare. In pastoral China, formal financial institutions are gradually increasing. However, a limited understanding remains of how formal credit affects herders’ household expenses. Based on a survey of 544 herders from the Qinghai–Xizang Plateau of China, this study adopted the propensity score matching approach to identify the effect of formal credit on herders’ total household expenses, daily expenses, and productive expenses. The results found that average age, grassland mortgage, and other variables significantly affected herders’ participation in formal credit. Formal credit could significantly improve household expenses, especially productive expenses. A heterogeneity analysis showed that formal credit had a greater impact on the household total expense for those at higher levels of wealth; however, it significantly affected the productive expense of herders at lower wealth levels. Moreover, the mediating effect indicated that formal credit could affect herders’ household income, thus influencing their household expenses. Finally, this study suggests that policies should improve herders’ accessibility to formal credit.

Rice productivity needs to be increased to feed Bangladesh's growing population. Productivity can be increased by adopting improved varieties and management practices, which require additional capital inputs. In this article, we aim to estimate the effect of formal and semiformal credit on rice productivity in Bangladesh. We surveyed 500 rice farmers to achieve these objectives. We used descriptive statistics, propensity score matching and Heckman's endogenous treatment effect model to analyse the data. The findings indicate that literacy, television ownership and training positively influenced access to formal credit. In general, credit recipients achieved higher productivity than did non-recipients. In the situation of credit source-specific effect, we found mixed results. Given the estimated difference of 438 kg/ha to 495 kg/ha, the results indicated that formal credit recipients had significantly higher productivity than did formal credit non-recipients. In contrast, endogenous treatment effect model results suggested that both formal and semiformal sources of credit had a significant effect on rice productivity. Increased agricultural loan disbursement through formal and semiformal credit institutions is strongly advocated. Farmers' decision-making abilities regarding the most effective source of credit can be improved through training in financial literacy. The central bank of Bangladesh, along with the credit regulatory authorities of non-governmental organisations, can implement appropriate agricultural credit programmes for farmers.

Indonesia as a country with the main staple food is sourced from rice, but in recent years has experienced a decline in rice production. The decline is not only at the national level but also at the provincial and district levels. One of the problems of the agricultural sector from the past until now is in terms of access to capital, because the background of farmers is diverse so that there are farmers who have sufficient capital and there are still very many farmers who have difficulty in terms of this capital. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify and analyze more deeply what factors influence the decision making of rice farmers in tidal lands on capital, especially formal credit and non-formal credit in South Kalimantan, especially Banjar Regency. The site selection was deliberate in Bekambat and Handil Purai villages, which are villages with tidal land and farmers who farm rice and many take credit. The study respondents were randomly selected as 80 farmers, 31 farmers who took formal credit and 49 farmers who took non-formal credit. Data analysis completed using logistic regression with the help of SPSS 27 program. As a result of the Goodness of Fit test, the model used is precise and can explain the data. Then simultaneously exert a significant influence on the response variable. Partially, of the 9 predictor variables, only 2 variables had a significant effect, namely the variable number of family members (X3) with a significance value of 0.078 and the large variable of loan amount (X5) with a significance value of 0.018. Other variables such as age, education, farming experience, loan interest, land area, land status and income do not have a significant effect on farmers' decision making.

Rice productivity needs to be increased to feed Bangladesh's growing population. Productivity can be increased by adopting improved varieties and management practices, which require additional capital inputs. In this article, we aim to estimate the effect of formal and semiformal credit on rice productivity in Bangladesh. We surveyed 500 rice farmers to achieve these objectives. We used descriptive statistics, propensity score matching and Heckman's endogenous treatment effect model to analyse the data. The findings indicate that literacy, television ownership and training positively influenced access to formal credit. In general, credit recipients achieved higher productivity than did non-recipients. In the situation of credit source-specific effect, we found mixed results. Given the estimated difference of 438 kg/ha to 495 kg/ha, the results indicated that formal credit recipients had significantly higher productivity than did formal credit non-recipients. In contrast, endogenous treatment effect model results suggested that both formal and semiformal sources of credit had a significant effect on rice productivity. Increased agricultural loan disbursement through formal and semiformal credit institutions is strongly advocated. Farmers' decision-making abilities regarding the most effective source of credit can be improved through training in financial literacy. The central bank of Bangladesh, along with the credit regulatory authorities of non-governmental organisations, can implement appropriate agricultural credit programmes for farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To tackle the growing menace of environmental degradation, the idea of green entrepreneurship has gained popularity, which is the process of creating new goods and technologies to solve environmental problems. Like traditional entrepreneurs, green entrepreneurs also need financial backing from financial institutions. However, no empirical evidence was found regarding the relationship between formal credit and green entrepreneurship. This analysis is an effort to plug this vacuum into the literature by analyzing the impact of formal credit on green entrepreneurship in high, middle, and low-income economies from 2011 to 2021. The study has employed various econometric techniques such as fixed-effects, random-effects, 2SLS, and GMM. The results show that formal credit substantially develops green entrepreneurship in high, middle, low-income, and full samples. Besides formal credit, GDP, environmental pressure, trade openness, technological development, and human capital are crucial in green entrepreneurship development in all samples. Policymakers may collaborate with financial institutions to create and provide specialized financial products and services catering to green entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microcredit has been found to be a critical instrument in improving the livelihood of poor people who have no financial access from other formal financial institutions. This study examined the impact of formal microcredit on income of borrowers in the rural areas of Sidama Region, Ethiopia. Data was collected from 456 sampled rural households consisting of 200 borrowers and 256 non-borrowers. This study applied propensity score matching (PSM) model to analyze the impact of microcredit on income of the borrowers. The result of this analysis indicates that microcredit had a positive and significant impact on the income of the borrowers. The sensitivity analysis result showed that the impact result estimated by this study is insensitive to unobserved selection bias and it is a true impact of formal microcredit. Therefore, microfinance institutions, other governmental, and nongovernmental organizations working in credit provision should expand access to credit to rural households in poverty reduction strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal digital credit raises hopes to decrease the gender gap in financial inclusion. However, up until now, it remains unknown whether these hopes are justified. Using nationally representative household surveys from Kenya, the present study aims to fill this gap. We find strong indication that formal digital credit, contrasting to expectations, has led to an increase in the gender gap in financial inclusion. We further find indication that the pervasive gender gap in the formal digital credit market is largely attributable to gender differences in socio‐economic variables in combination with a lack of contract term heterogeneity in that market. The paper suggests that policies to strengthen women's position in society and/or to encourage contract term heterogeneity in the formal digital credit market could decrease the gender gap in financial inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural mechanization and the use of mixed inputs ensure higher productivity. In this regard, the Government of Pakistan has executed an approach for the provision of agricultural credit to smallholders for improving agricultural production. However, many issues are involved in the extent, utilization and impacts of credit. This study aims to explore the impact of credit, its utilization, misuse and factors determining the extent of agricultural credit in Pakistan. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed to collect data from 316 farmers in Mardan District. The study was analyzed through statistical tools such as a paired t-test, ANOVA and multiple regressions. Results showed that agricultural credit enhanced crops' production. However, according to percentage use, misuse of the credit was more common than its proper utilization. Farmers utilized credit for land preparation, fertilizers, seeds, pesticides and daily labor. They misused agricultural credit for healthcare, education of children, domestic needs and business. Results of the regression model showed that farmers' age, experience, farm size, farm income, farm labor and land ownership were determinants of the extent of agricultural credit. Policy measures should be taken to stop the misuse of agricultural credit to achieve the target set for agricultural productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the twenty‐first century, expansion of the formal credit supply in Brazil has promoted the 'financial inclusion' of the low‐income population, especially through instalment plans offered by large retail chains. This article aims to analyse the impacts of formal credit availability on the consumption of electrical and electronic goods by residents of Jardim Helena, a neighbourhood in São Paulo's periphery. Through the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, this study reveals how the instalment plan can stimulate consumption among the low‐income population, with a significant impact on household budgets, raising the risk of indebtedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural credit is an important tool that can improve farm production, ensure food security, increase household income, and ultimately catalyse rural development. This study examined the factors affecting the credit constraints on farm households in Punjab, Pakistan. A questionnaire was administered, and 519 farm households were recruited from five randomly selected districts of Punjab province. The data were analyzed using a two-step methodology. In the first step, direct elicitation was used to identify the credit constraints of farm households. In the second step, the Probit model was employed to analyze the factors that affect the likelihood of farm households facing credit constraints. The results showed that household head education, farm size, and farm capital had significant negative effects on the presence of credit constraints. The dependency ratio and household consumption expenditures had significant positive effects on farm households' likelihood of being credit constrained. These findings may help to mitigate the removal of farm household credit constraints and improve access to institutional credit, as well as reducing food insecurity and income inequality. The Central Bank of Pakistan should strictly monitor the lending procedures of commercial banks and introduce relaxed policies for new applicants and small landholders. Driving down the interest rate for agricultural businesses and offering loans for improved farm technologies at subsidized rates could be another important policy option. Awareness sessions about lending and repayment procedures should be conducted at the village level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to analyze the determinant factors of the ability of shrimp farmers to repay loans on time and the decisive factors of the on-time loan repayment amount. Based on the primary data of 210 shrimp farming households in Ca Mau province, the study applied a two-step regression model of Heckman to test the proposed hypotheses. The research results showed that the number of dependent members, loan amount and number of farming crops negatively impact the ability to repay the loan in a timely manner, while total assets, shrimp farming experience and loan purpose positively influence the ability to repay the loan on time of shrimp households. In addition, the regression results also showed that number of loan maturity and size of shrimp farming land negatively affect the amount of on-time loan repayment, whereas the education level of the household head and total assets positively influence the on-time loan repayment amount. Based on the empirical findings, the authors proposed several recommendations for improving the loan repayment capacity of the households in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial support is a crucial part of China’s poverty alleviation effort. Thus, it is vital to understand how formal credit impacts income growth in rural households. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, a survey was conducted to obtain a panel dataset of 592 rural households from 6 poverty-stricken counties in western China, including counties in Guizhou, Yunnan, and Shaanxi provinces. We use the data to examine the effect of formal credit on rural household income and the mechanism that underlies this effect. We find that formal credit can significantly increase rural households’ income in deprived areas in western China. Furthermore, formal credit promotes the reallocation of household labor from the agricultural sector to the non-agricultural sector and changes rural households’ decisions about investment-consumption behavior. These are the drivers of changes in the amount and structure of household income. Further analyses show that formal credit may widen income inequality among rural households in western China’s deprived areas. The individual characteristics of rural households, such as different levels of material capital, human capital, and social capital, bring about differences in the effects of formal credit on income growth. This study emphasizes that the implementation of formal credit is an essential strategy for poverty alleviation in underdeveloped areas, but policymakers should not excessively interfere with the financial market.

The objective of this study is to determine if there is a dependency association between the characteristics of micro, small and medium-sized companies (MSMEs) in terms of size, seniority, level of education of their managers and gender, and the taking of credit «drop by drop». An investigation is developed with quantitative methodology and the population under study is taken as MSMEs of the city of Bogotá (Colombia). As main findings, it is identified that there is a dependency association between the variables of company size, company age, managerial level of education, and taking credit «drop by drop» (informal loans). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors investigated the role of formal and informal credit in non-farm activities among Vietnamese rural households using pooled cross-sectional data from household surveys in 2016 and 2018. The econometric analysis confirms that households with more loans are more likely to engage in non-farm activities and increase the intensity of such activities. The probability and intensity of non-farm activities are also determined by the level of education and occupation of household heads. In addition, the presence of nonfarm opportunities and access to roads in a commune increase the chance of non-farm participation for households living in that commune. The study suggests that policy interventions for promoting rural non-farm economy should aim to improve rural households' access to formal credit, better education, and non-farming opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock plays a significant role in promoting the financial status, assuring food security and reducing poverty specifically rural community of developing countries. The present study attempts to analyze the impact of formal credit on milk production of dairy animals and household income in district Vehari of southern Punjab, Pakistan. The study used simple random sampling approach for collecting primary data of 240 livestock household farmers and employed regression analysis model to estimate credit impact on household income and livestock production. An economic technique of log-linear regression model was applied to identify the factors influencing dairy production and estimate household income difference from dairy production due to formal credit from Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL). Estimates of the study indicated that agricultural credit facilitated to enhance household income 23.58%, increases herd size 35.5% and raises the average number of milking animals 39.74%. The elasticity of milking animals (0.72%) and agricultural credit (0.139%) is relatively more comparative to education level (0.113%) and family size (0.076 %). In the scenario of findings of the study, it is suggested that policymakers and concerned institutional authorities focus priority to infusion and easy access of credit in formulating easy credit procedures for specifically subsistence farmers which will help in increasing livestock production, reducing poverty and unemployment in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-commerce furnishes farmers in rural China with a novel solution accomplishing entrepreneurship transformation, but serious credit constraints still coexist with it at present, which may restrict the release of e-commerce’s potential. Therefore, this study investigates whether formal credit promotes entrepreneurial farmers’ e-commerce utilization and explores its influencing mechanism. Based on the survey data collected from 831 entrepreneurial farmers in Shaanxi province, Ningxia province and Shandong province in rural China, the propensity score matching (PSM) method was applied to measure the impact of formal credit on e-commerce utilization. The results show that formal credit contributes to a 18.41% increase of e-commerce utilization in general and increases entrepreneurial farmers’ online purchases and sales by 11.15% and 14.69%, respectively. Some groups perform significantly in the heterogeneity analysis, the most noteworthy of which are entrepreneurial farmers who are younger, belong to new type of agricultural business entities and use mobile payments. Their e-commerce utilization, including online purchases and sales, are impacted most by formal credit. Furthermore, when the bootstrap method was used to examine the mediating effect, we found that formal credit has a positive and significant effect on the utilization of e-commerce through four channels, which are internet learning, asset allocation, labor allocation and income growth. Hence, the findings suggest that the government should augment the amount of formal credit to optimize entrepreneurial farmers’ internet learning, asset allocation, labor employment and income growth, thereby promoting e-commerce to achieve entrepreneurial transformation and sustainable development in rural areas.

This study is a gender analysis of access to formal credit by both male and female small-scale farmers in Greater Letaba Municipality. The study precisely identified and described the socio-economic characteristics of female and male small-scale farmers, analysed and compared factors influencing access to formal credit by these farmers, and determined the perceptions of female small-scale farmers towards the credit system. In collecting the primary data, structured questionnaires were administered to 140 respondents (70 females and 70 males) using the stratified random technique. The study employed descriptive statistics, principal component analysis and a probit model to analyse the data collected. The probit regression model discovered that farm size, land ownership, gender, age, collateral and extension services had a significant positive influence on small-scale farmers formal credit access. Based on the study findings, a set of recommendations for achieving equitable formal credit access by female and male small-scale farmers was put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate the impact of access to credit on rural households' annual income using an endogenous switching regression approach, an increasingly popular method of tackling the selection bias issue in impact analyses. Using a large survey of rural households in eastern India, we find that access to credit is strongly associated with rural households' socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Additionally, access to credit increases rural households' economic well-being; nonborrower rural households would benefit the most from access to credit. Access to credit affects recipients heterogeneously, implying that credit policies should be adaptable to different rural household groups.

We examine the causes of the financial crisis of 2011 in the Chinese city of Wenzhou. While the crisis of 2011 has been attributed to weaknesses in the system of informal finance, including predatory interest rates, we suggest that the roots of the failure lay in the way that the formal and informal systems became intertwined in the period following the global financial crisis of 2008 and the expansionary monetary policy initiated by the Chinese authorities to counter its effects. We explore the effects of the over-supply of formal credit in this period and the encouragement of group lending, a practice relatively unknown prior to 2008, and which magnified the effects of the crisis. We suggest that the lesson to draw from Wenzhou is not that informal finance is inherently more instable or inefficient than formal finance, but that encounters between formal and informal finance can trigger instabilities in both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence on the impact of formal credit interventions to enhance the activities of poor people has produced mixed results. This study analysed the impact of formal credit programme(s) on yield and income per hectare of tomato farmers in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The paper aims at broadening the horizon of rural agricultural finance and, specifically, the impact of formal credit intervention measures. By applying a multistage sampling procedure, 224 tomato farmers were sampled and interviewed with semi structured questionnaire. We used the Propensity Scores Matching (PSM) technique to estimate the impact of formal credit intervention. We find that participation in formal credit programme(s) has increased significantly yield and income per hectare by 1.88 metric tons and GH¢1537.78 respectively despite the perceived high risk of advancing formal credit to tomato farmers in the Greater Accra Region. Formal credit, when well structured to meet the needs of farmers, can help to improve yield and income. We, therefore, recommend expansion of formal credit programmes that address the specific needs of smallholder farmers to help to reduce poverty, improve food security and promote inclusive development.

This study used Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) data and applied the fixed effect estimation method. This study showed that informal credit had a more negative impact on household welfare compared to the use of formal credit. In addition, the use of semi-formal credit caused a more negative impact on household welfare compared to the use of formal credit. It can be due to higher interest rates in the use of informal credit compared to semi-formal and formal credit. This study also indicated that credit used for productive purposes brought about a more positive impact than credit used for consumptive purposes. The higher the amount of credit used, the more positive the impact on household welfare is compared to the use of fewer loans. This research results can be the basis for the government to concern about the policy of credit interest rates to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study assesses the factors that are significantly related to the use of financial services among the people living in the North-Eastern States of India. This part of the geographical area has a low penetration of banking and financial services as reported in various documents by the regulators. The use of financial services gives a precise picture of the inclusiveness of the financial system. Financial inclusion does not merely mean having a bank account but using that bank account to derive benefits from various financial services. The present study will try to find out the factors acting as impediments towards the use of financial services and a¤ecting the choice of using or not using any such financial services and products. The study is based on the primary data collected using a questionnaire from 1,948 respondents spreading across three states of North East India. Tobit regression analysis is used as the censored regression model to find out the linear relationship between variables a¤ecting the use of financial services. Fitting Tobit regression model, it is found that, the critical factors that are significant towards the use of financial services are financial awareness, economic status of the members, the suitability of financial products, income, education, age of the user and presence of banking correspondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate the impact of access to credit on rural households' per capita annual income using an endogenous switching regression approach, an increasingly popular method of tackling the selection bias issue in impact analyses. Using a large survey of rural households in eastern India, we find that access to credit is strongly associated with rural households' socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Additionally, access to credit increases rural households' economic well-being; nonborrower rural households would benefit the most from access to credit. Access to credit affects recipients heterogeneously, implying that credit policies should be adaptable to different rural household groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a survey of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) conducted during 2005–2013, this paper examines the process of applying for a formal loan and the level of satisfaction (credit needs) obtained by SMEs. The empirical results show that banking relationships and the business environment are important factors when applying for and obtaining formal credit. However, positive measures of firms' financial performance, such as a high return on assets score and sales growth, did not have a significant influence on whether firms obtained credit. Formal financial institutions in Vietnam were found to depend too much on collateral assets in assessing whether to supply credit to an SME. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Ethiopia, among other things, lack of finance is one of the fundamental problems hampering production, productivity and income of rural farm households. Since access to institutional finance is very limited, the majority of the coffee farmers are forced to search financial services through informal channels. This study was aimed at analyzing coffee value chain finance in Bodji Dirmeji District, Ethiopia with specific objectives of mapping out the coffee value chain finance and Sources of Credit for Coffee Value Chain in the study area. Two stage sampling method was employed to select 168 coffee farmers. Coffee value chain actors include producers, local collectors/assemblers suppliers, processors, service providers, exporters, wholesalers and retailers. The study reveals that the sources of credit to coffee farmers comprised of both the formal and informal sources. Formal sources included the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) Oromia Credit and Saving Share Company (OCSSCO) and Cooperatives. Informal credit sources on the other hand comprised coffee traders. The output from the study indicates that 64 (38.1%) of the sampled farm households were formal credit users, whereas the remaining 104 (61.9%) of the sampled farm households were having fixed price forward contracting with traders. Therefore, policy aimed to accelerate agricultural development in the area could be successful if these problems are taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of formal Agricultural Credit on Agricultural Output (AGGDP). The relationship among agricultural output and agricultural formal credit, cropped area, labor force participating in the agriculture sector, trade openness has been quantified through various econometric approaches in the study. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bound testing approach has been applied to analyze the long run cointegration among variables, obtaining annual time series data from 1973 to 2014. An empirical estimation of ARDL approach has indicated the evidence of long-run cointegration of model. Empirical findings of the study indicate positive (5.178151) and significant relationship between agriculture credit and agricultural output. Labor participating in agriculture has positive (14.98381) yet insignificant relation to agricultural output while trade openness has negative (-39.64926) and significant impact on agricultural output. Similarly, the relationship between cropped area and agriculture output is positive (114.1869) and significant. Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) has employed to explore short-run dynamics of agriculture production. Long run equilibrium stability has reaffirmed the short run empirical estimates. Lengthy formal credit procedure, political and bureaucratic influence and misallocation of credit utilization are major constraints in lowering overall agriculture output. Adequate farmer's friendly policies and proper legislative measures are necessary for the smooth flow of increasing agriculture output and overcoming financial constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor households, especially ethnic minorities in mountainous areas typically face financial constraints. Access to formal credit sources, especially microfinance institutions (MFIs), can help reduce the constraints to investing in income-generating activities and/or smoothing consumption. Using cross-sectional data from a survey of poor households, this article aims at 1) examining the poor's access to formal credit (probit and tobit models), and 2) evaluating the impact of formal credit on the poor's living standards (propensity score matching). The estimated results show that access to formal credit and/or the amount granted were affected by age, education level, household size, labour-force ratio, main job, non-productive assets, and residential land. In terms of impact, borrowers were found to have significantly higher revenue from self-employment activities and to have significantly greater expenditures on non-food necessities and productive assets than non-borrowers. Hence, access to MFIs for microloans is an important tool for the ethnic minority poor in remote areas in poverty reduction programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government of India has set an objective to include the excluded in the ambit of formal financial sector. For this, it has undertaken many of the policy proposals. The basic rationale behind undertaking these policy proposals was to safeguard the vulnerable groups from the vicious circle of informal credit, unbearable interest burden, financial frauds and exploitation. Initially Reserve Bank of India launched the concept of no frills accounts, and had relaxed KYC norms also. RBI also introduced Micro Finance, General Credit Cards, and Kisan Credit Cards. The concept of Self Help Groups was also introduced with the same vision. Thus, banking sector has played an important role to implement, promote and monitor the key objectives of the financial inclusion drive. And it has also helped, guided and encouraged the untapped group of households in formal financial sector. This paper aims to analyze the major factors affecting the implementation of Financial Inclusion initiatives by the Government & Reserve Bank of India. For this, the researcher has taken the opinions of the banking officials. They are the key people who play an important role in including the target group in the formal financial sector. They provide the first step of inclusion, the basic of banking services which is starting from opening a bank account. Then they give formal credit; provide access to services like ATM etc. This study is undertaken by studying the view points of banking officials. For this, a sample of 11 0 respondents is taken to analyze the major factors affecting the Financial Inclusion drive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing Food Crop Production through Rotatory Credit Savings among Small holder Food Crop Farmers in Demsa Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria was the focus of this research. A random sample of 120 respondents were collected and data subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that 81.67% of the respondents fall within the age range of 25 to 49 years with mean age of 35 years, males dominated the association (66.67%), 70.83 % were married with mean annual saving of N31, 345.50. Regression analysis revealed that about 71.21 % of the differences in the savings of respondents were explained by the variables included in the model (R2=0.7121). Age, education, income and farm size were the determinants of savings among respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited access to credit can cause financial vulnerability for a household and economic loss for a country. Previous studies have shown that only small portions of the population in developing countries had access to formal credit, and few of them focused on Chinese populations. Using data from 2011 China Household Financial Studies, this study explores Chinese households' credit use. We found that over half of the sample (53.21%) used credit, and only 19.77% used formal credit. Use of formal credit was associated with socioeconomic characteristics of household heads (e.g., employment, education) and households (e.g., income, net worth). The findings suggest that promoting financial inclusion in China involves expanding access to formal credit among the socially and economically disadvantaged households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to investigate the motivation behind the decision to participate in the credit market of SMEs from perspectives of behavioral finance and social capital theories. In addition, the study also examines the effect of behavioral finance and social capital factors on the credit source selection among SMEs. This study’s design strategy involves conducting questionnaire surveys to SMEs owners and statistical techniques to analyze the determinants of credit participation and credit source selection of borrowers. The findings showed that personal traits of SMEs owners/managers in terms of behavioral finance factors such as debt and risk attitudes, present biased and overconfidence and firms networking also have impacts on the firms’ credit participation and credit source selection. The research is one of the few studies that consider the influence of behavioral finance factors on firms financing decision. Furthermore, our result also contributes to explain thecommon use of informal credit market in developing countries.

The study was designed to examine access to credit markets and performance by small scale agro-based enterprises in the Niger Delta. A multistage sampling technique was adopted in selecting 264 and 96 agro-based enterprises that accessed informal and formal credit respectively through the use of structured questionnaire and oral interview. The logit model was used to examine the factors that had significant influence on credit access by the enterprises in the region. Results revealed that the factors that significantly influence informal credit access by small scale agro-based enterprises are Gender, Age and Social Capital, while factors that influence formal credit access are Education, Age, Enterprise size and Collateral. Majority of enterprises accessed informal credit but the few that accessed formal credit performed better. Government should ensure easy access to formal finance by small agro-based enterprises in the region as they are the engine of economic development.

We investigate factors from firm side that determine their financing pattern for new investment projects and their decision to choose formal, informal credit, or both. For financing pattern of new investment project, we use Random-effect model while Unordered-Multinomial Logistic is used to estimate probability of choosing any of four choices to access to finance, say, formal credit, informal credit, both of them, or none of them. Our analysis is based on a panel of around 2200 small and medium sized enterprises with 7900 observations extracted from the “Survey of small and medium scale manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam” in 2005, 2007, and 2009.

Based on household survey data, this article shows that farmers' demand for credit in poor areas of rural China has increased significantly in recent years, and credits from various sources are used differently in production and consumption. For example, microfinance is used primarily in livestock and non-agricultural investments, formal credit is often used in crop production, and informal credit is largely used to meet farmers' consumption requirements. Developing a complementary system with various financial channels in rural China, particularly for non-governmental microfinance, is crucial for meeting farmers' rising demand for credit in both production and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]