Actively studying take-up rates, or participation rates, can help us understand the demand for different microfinance products, and how existing products might be improved to attract more clients and serve them better. This note reviews the evidence on take-up. It first discusses why take-up rates and participation are important, and how they can be measured. It then goes on to review survey data on why people don’t use microfinance products when they are available, and offers guidance on how low take-up rates might be addressed.
Type:
Framing Note
Date:
June 2010
Authors:
Dean Karlan, Jonathan Morduch, Sendhil Mullainathan
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Participation, Research Methodology
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The financial diaries provide insight into the prices poor households paid for financial instruments, and the logic behind their financial decisions. Researchers revealed that surviving on small, irregular, and unpredictable earnings often generates financial behaviors that at first seem counter-intuitive—such as paying or borrowing to save. Through the financial diaries approach, researchers were forced to confront assumptions and take a fresh look at understanding the price of microfinance—paying close attention to what price means to poor households, the cost financial institutions assume in lending to the poor, and the universal tension between the impatience to meet financial demands today, and the desire to save for the future. This brief outlines these dilemmas and tradeoffs.
This is the eighth note in the Portfolios of the Poor Briefing Notes series. You can link to the other notes below.
Briefing Note 1: The "Triple-Whammy" of Poverty
Briefing Note 2: Borrowing to Save
Briefing Note 3: How do the Poor Deal with Risk?
Briefing Note 4: Research Methodologies
Briefing Note 5: Creating Better Portfolios—Core Financial Products for the Poor
Briefing Note 6: Portfolios of Bangladesh’s Poor
Briefing Note 7: Grameen II and Portfolios of the Poor
Briefing Note 9: Three-Country Analysis
These Briefing Notes were created as part of a toolkit of instructional resources for FAI and MicroSave’s June 8-9 virtual conference Reimagining Microfinance Around the World: Implementing Lessons from Portfolios of the Poor. Co-authors Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, and MicroSave’s Graham A.N. Wright moderated the event and discussed with conference “attendees” how to turn lessons from the financial diaries into real, on-the-ground solutions for economic development. The collection of suggested readings and videos for the conference can be accessed on this page.
Type:
Brief
Date:
June 2010
Authors:
Financial Access Initiative
Country:
Bangladesh; India; South Africa
Themes:
Big Picture, Credit, Research Methodology
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Portfolios of the Poor offers new thinking about how the world’s poorest communities manage their financial lives. To uncover these intimate details, researchers designed a study in which they interviewed poor households twice a month over the course of a year, and recorded the details of how they managed their financial lives. The resulting “financial diaries” encompass data from nearly 250 households in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa, and reflect a mixed-research methodology that is systematic in data collection while simultaneously captures the complexity of people’s lives.
This note explores the following research methodologies adopted during the book’s research:
• The financial diaries approach
• Interviews
• Demographics of the survey sample
• The continuum of household research: Where do the financial diaries fall?
• Lessons learnt from portfolio approach
This is the fourth note in the Portfolios of the Poor Briefing Notes series. You can link to the other notes below.
Briefing Note 1: The "Triple-Whammy" of Poverty
Briefing Note 2: Borrowing to Save
Briefing Note 3: How do the Poor Deal with Risk?
Briefing Note 5: Creating Better Portfolios—Core Financial Products for the Poor
Briefing Note 6: Portfolios of Bangladesh’s Poor
Briefing Note 7: Grameen II and Portfolios of the Poor
Briefing Note 8: Understanding Price
Briefing Note 9: Three-Country Analysis
These Briefing Notes were created as part of a toolkit of instructional resources for FAI and MicroSave’s June 8-9 virtual conference Reimagining Microfinance Around the World: Implementing Lessons from Portfolios of the Poor. Co-authors Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, and MicroSave’s Graham A.N. Wright moderated the event and discussed with conference “attendees” how to turn lessons from the financial diaries into real, on-the-ground solutions for economic development. The collection of suggested readings and videos for the conference can be accessed on this page.
Type:
Brief
Date:
May 2010
Country:
Bangladesh; India; South Africa
Research Areas:
Reimagining Financial Access
Themes:
Research Methodology
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Examines the mechanics, merits and limitations of randomized experiments in microfinance.
Type:
Brief
Date:
May 2009
Authors:
Jonathan Bauchet, Aparna Dalal
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Research Methodology
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Reports on a variety of experiments conducted to better understand the importance of some of the problems of measuring profits, and offers recommendations for collecting profit data.
Date:
January 2009
Authors:
David McKenzie, Christopher Woodruff, Suresh de Mel
Country:
Sri Lanka
Themes:
Financial Literacy, Research Methodology
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Type:
Paper
Date:
April 2008
Authors:
Dean Karlan, Jinyong Hahn, Keisuke Hi
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Research Methodology
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Type:
Framing Note
Date:
January 2008
Authors:
Nathanael Goldberg, Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Credit, Research Methodology
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Examines how credit scoring can be used to improve microfinance operations and expand access for poor households.
Type:
Framing Note
Date:
December 2007
Authors:
Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Country:
South Africa
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Credit
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Type:
Paper
Date:
November 2006
Authors:
Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Country:
Global, Global
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Credit, Interest Rates, Marketing
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Reviews design considerations of various research methodologies for impact evaluations.
Type:
Framing Note
Date:
August 2006
Authors:
Nathanael Goldberg, Dean Karlan
Country:
Global
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Research Methodology
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Presents an application of the randomized control trial methodology to evaluate modifications in the design of microcredit programs.
Type:
Paper
Date:
March 2006
Authors:
Xavier Giné, Tomoko Harigaya, Dean Karlan, Binh Nguyen
Country:
Philippines
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Product Design
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Tests the characteristics of two-player trust games with borrowers in a Peruvian microcredit program.
Type:
Paper
Date:
July 2005
Authors:
Dean Karlan
Country:
Peru
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Research Methodology
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Advocates a rigorous, scientific approach to the evaluation of innovations in micro-savings products.
Type:
Paper
Date:
November 2003
Authors:
Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin
Country:
Philippines
Research Areas:
Mechanisms Matter
Themes:
Savings
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Suggests a method to address attrition biases when conducting cross-sectional impact assessments between veteran and new program participants.
Type:
Paper
Date:
December 2001
Authors:
Dean Karlan
Country:
Global, Global
Research Areas:
Measuring Impact
Themes:
Research Methodology
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