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Repayment Flexibility Can Reduce Financial Stress: A Randomized Control Trial with Microfinance Clients in India

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  • Erica Field
  • Rohini Pande
  • John Papp
  • Y Jeanette Park

Abstract

Financial stress is widely believed to cause health problems. However, policies seeking to relieve financial stress by limiting debt levels of poor households may directly worsen their economic well-being. We evaluate an alternative policy – increasing the repayment flexibility of debt contracts. A field experiment randomly assigned microfinance clients to a monthly or a traditional weekly installment schedule (N = 200). We used cell phones to gather survey data on income, expenditure, and financial stress every 48 hours over seven weeks. Clients repaying monthly were 51 percent less likely to report feeling “worried, tense, or anxious” about repaying, were 54 percent more likely to report feeling confident about repaying, and reported spending less time thinking about their loan compared to weekly clients. Monthly clients also reported higher business investment and income, suggesting that the flexibility encouraged them to invest their loans more profitably, which ultimately reduced financial stress.

Suggested Citation

  • Erica Field & Rohini Pande & John Papp & Y Jeanette Park, 2012. "Repayment Flexibility Can Reduce Financial Stress: A Randomized Control Trial with Microfinance Clients in India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-7, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0045679
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045679
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Shakir Hussain Parrey & Suhail Ahmad Bhat, 2019. "Individual risk propensity and agri-entrepreneurial financing effectiveness: strategy for sustainable agri-financing," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 46(1), pages 75-90, March.
    2. Rahul Kumar Sett, 2015. "Should Flexibility Matter? A Poor Consumer’s Perspective of Flexible Micro Loans," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 4(2), pages 166-169, July.
    3. Abhijit Banerjee & Emily Breza & Arun G Chandrasekhar & Esther Duflo & Matthew O Jackson & Cynthia Kinnan, 2024. "Changes in Social Network Structure in Response to Exposure to Formal Credit Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(3), pages 1331-1372.
    4. repec:osf:osfxxx:nwp8k_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Daniel Bjorkegren & Joshua Blumenstock & Omowunmi Folajimi-Senjobi & Jacqueline Mauro & Suraj R. Nair, 2022. "Instant Loans Can Lift Subjective Well-Being: A Randomized Evaluation of Digital Credit in Nigeria," Papers 2202.13540, arXiv.org.
    6. Byungun Yoon & Taeyeoun Roh & Hyejin Jang & Dooseob Yun, 2019. "Developing an Risk Signal Detection System Based on Opinion Mining for Financial Decision Support," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-26, August.
    7. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Smits, Joeri & Sun, Qigang, 2020. "Contract structure, time preference, and technology adoption," GLO Discussion Paper Series 633, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Masselus, Lise & Petrik, Christina & Ankel-Peters, Jörg, 2024. "Lost in the design space? Construct validity in the microfinance literature," Ruhr Economic Papers 1097, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    9. Janet Namuchile & Daniel Ndhlovu & Noah K. Sichula, 2023. "An Analysis of Microcredit Literacy Programmes in the Transformation of the Lives of Women in Four Selected Districts of Southern Province of Zambia," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(1), pages 860-877, January.
    10. McHugh, Neil & Biosca, Olga & Donaldson, Cam, 2015. "Microfinance, health and randomised trials," Health Economics Working Paper Series 201501, Glasgow Caledonian University, Yunus Centre.
    11. Aragón, Fernando M. & Karaivanov, Alexander & Krishnaswamy, Karuna, 2020. "Credit lines in microcredit: Short-term evidence from a randomized controlled trial in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    12. Nazmul Islam, Muhammed & Rabbani, Atonu & De Allegri, Manuela & Sarker, Malabika, 2024. "Medical treatment loans and their effects on health care utilization and out-of-pocket expenditure: Evidence from an experiment in northern Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    13. d'Adda, Giovanna & Mahmud, Mahreen & Said, Farah & Bonan, Jacopo, 2020. "The Role of Flexibility and Planning in Repayment Discipline: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Pay-as-You-Go Off-Grid Electricity," RFF Working Paper Series 20-14, Resources for the Future.
    14. Field, Erica & Holland, Abraham & Pande, Rohini, 2016. "Microcredit: Points of Promise," Working Paper Series 16-036, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    15. Carolina Laureti & Alain De Janvry & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2017. "Flexible Microfinance Products for Financial Management by the Poor: Evidence from SafeSave," Working Papers CEB 17-036, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    16. Chowdhury, Shyamal & Smits, Joeri & Sun, Qigang, 2020. "Contract Structure, Time Preference, and Technology Adoption," IZA Discussion Papers 13590, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Erica Field & Rohini Pande & John Papp & Natalia Rigol, 2013. "Does the Classic Microfinance Model Discourage Entrepreneurship among the Poor? Experimental Evidence from India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2196-2226, October.
    18. Ibrahim, Fatma & McHugh, Neil & Biosca, Olga & Baker, Rachel & Laxton, Tim & Donaldson, Cam, 2021. "Microcredit as a public health initiative? Exploring mechanisms and pathways to health and wellbeing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    19. Shonchoy, Abu S. & Kurosaki, Takashi, 2014. "Impact of seasonality-adjusted flexible microcredit on repayment and food consumption : experimental evidence from rural Bangladesh," IDE Discussion Papers 460, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    20. Marc Labie & Carolina Laureti & Ariane Szafarz, 2016. "Discipline and Flexibility: A Behavioral Perspective on Product Design in Microfinance," Working Papers CEB 15-020, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    21. Marc Labie & Carolina Laureti & Ariane Szafarz, 2013. "Flexible Products in Microfinance: Overcoming the Demand-Supply Mismatch," Working Papers CEB 13-044, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    22. Giné, Xavier & Karlan, Dean S., 2014. "Group versus individual liability: Short and long term evidence from Philippine microcredit lending groups," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 65-83.

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