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Informal Credit, Usury, or Support? A Case Study for Vietnam

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  • Cuong Viet Nguyen
  • Marrit Berg

Abstract

type="main"> The informal credit market remains an important source of finance for the poor in Vietnam. Yet, little if anything is known about the impact of informal loans on poverty and inequality, and the Vietnamese government has no policies towards the informal credit market. In the present study paper, we found that the effect of credit from friends and relatives on per capita expenditure is positive but not statistically significant. Meanwhile, the effect of credit from private moneylenders on per capita expenditure is positive and statistically significant. Borrowing from private moneylenders increases per capita expenditure of households by around 15%. Further, it reduced the poverty incidence of borrowers by around 8.5 percentage points in 2006 and significantly decreases the poverty gap index and the poverty-severity index. Borrowing from private moneylenders also reduces expenditure inequality, albeit at a very small magnitude.

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  • Cuong Viet Nguyen & Marrit Berg, 2014. "Informal Credit, Usury, or Support? A Case Study for Vietnam," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 52(2), pages 154-178, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:deveco:v:52:y:2014:i:2:p:154-178
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    3. Le Phuong Xuan Dang & Viet-Ngu Hoang & Son Hong Nghiem & Clevo Wilson, 2023. "Social capital and informal credit access: empirical evidence from a Vietnamese household panel survey," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 311-340, July.
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    5. Alina Malkova & Klara Sabirianova Peter & Jan Svejnar, 2021. "Labor Informality and Credit Market Accessibility," Papers 2102.05803, arXiv.org.
    6. Migheli, Matteo, 2016. "Land Ownership, Access to Informal Credit and Its Cost in Rural Vietnam," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201619, University of Turin.
    7. Thanh-Tung Nguyen & Trung Thanh Nguyen & Ulrike Grote, 2020. "Credit and Ethnic Consumption Inequality in the Central Highlands of Vietnam," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 143-172, February.
    8. Quang Tran, Tuyen & Doan, Tinh & Vu, Huong & Nguyen, Hien, 2018. "The Impact of Public Governance on Household Income: A Quantile Panel Analysis," MPRA Paper 90415, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 08 Mar 2018.
    9. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2018. "The effect of agricultural commercialization on food security," OSF Preprints acw3h, Center for Open Science.
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