Improving the project design of poverty reduction policies: Structural estimation and RCT

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25285088
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic policy
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Hisaki Kono 京都大学, 経済学研究科(研究院), 准教授 (40450548)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ションチョイ アブ 独立行政法人日本貿易振興機構アジア経済研究所, その他部局等, 研究員 (40617461) ; 高橋 和志 上智大学, 経済学部, 准教授 (90450551)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 貧困削減 / プログラム設計 / マイクロクレジット / 教育

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The effectiveness of poverty reduction policies can substantially depends on the incentive design of the policy. The desirable policy design, in turn, would depend on the economic and social environment the economic agents are located in. In this project, we show how the repayment scheme in microcredit could affect the outcome of borrowers: Shorter maturity makes poor borrowers more dependent on moneylenders and discourages them from making investment. For the farmers who will not have income until harvesting period, we found that the agricultural loans which allow them to pay after harvesting over-performed the traditional microcredit in terms of uptake rate, repayment rate, and saving accumulation. In addition, we showed that DVD-based DVD learning program performed quite well, and its effectiveness is in large part attributable to the commitment mechanisms built in the program.

Free Research Field

開発経済学