IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwwpp/dp715.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Credit for What?: Informal Credit as a Coping Strategy of Market Women in Northern Ghana

Author

Abstract

This paper explores the use of informal credit as a strategy for managing risks by market women in northern Ghana. A broad concept of the costs of risk management strategies is introduced and encompasses both a time and monetary dimension. Based on qualitative data, the analysis reveals that market women invest a considerable amount of time in maintaining complex networks of informal credit providers to insure their access to credit once a shock occurs. Informal credit involves high transaction costs and prevents market women from growing out of poverty in the long term.

Suggested Citation

  • Kati Schindler, 2007. "Credit for What?: Informal Credit as a Coping Strategy of Market Women in Northern Ghana," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 715, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp715
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.61912.de/dp715.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jain, Sanjay & Mansuri, Ghazala, 2003. "A little at a time: the use of regularly scheduled repayments in microfinance programs," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 253-279, October.
    2. David Mushinski, 1999. "An analysis of offer functions of banks and credit unions in Guatemala," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 88-112.
    3. Christopher Udry & Timothy G. Conley, 2004. "Social Networks in Ghana," Working Papers 888, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    4. Aryeetey, Ernest & Udry, Christopher, 1997. "The Characteristics of Informal Financial Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), vol. 6(1), pages 161-203, March.
    5. Claudia Olivetti & Stefania Albanesi, 2005. "Home Production, Market Production and the Gender Wage Gap: Incentives and Expectations," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2005-013, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    6. Martin Browning & Valérie Lechene, 2001. "Caring and Sharing: Tests Between Alternative Models of Intra-household Allocation," Discussion Papers 01-07, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    7. Tsai, Kellee S., 2004. "Imperfect Substitutes: The Local Political Economy of Informal Finance and Microfinance in Rural China and India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1487-1507, September.
    8. Jin-Long Liu & Ching-Chun Hsu, 2004. "Economies of scale, gender discrimination, and cost of children," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(6), pages 377-382.
    9. Boucher, Stephen R. & Guirkinger, Catherine, 2007. "AJAE Appendix: Risk, Wealth and Sectoral Choice in Rural Credit Markets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics APPENDICES, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 1-4, November.
    10. Kochar, Anjini, 1997. "An empirical investigation of rationing constraints in rural credit markets in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 339-371, August.
    11. Baydas, Mayada M. & Bahloul, Zakaria & Adams, Dale W., 1995. "Informal finance in Egypt: "Banks" within banks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 651-661, April.
    12. Udry, Christopher, 1990. "Credit Markets in Northern Nigeria: Credit as Insurance in a Rural Economy," World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 4(3), pages 251-269, September.
    13. Gosling, Amanda & Karagiannaki, Eleni, 2004. "Intra-Household Allocation and the Living Standards of the Elderly in Greece," CEPR Discussion Papers 4776, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Sonia Bhalotra, 2004. "Early Childhood Investments in Human Capital: Parental Resources and Preferences," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 04/562, Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    15. Bell, Clive & Srinivasan, T N & Udry, Christopher, 1997. "Rationing, Spillover, and Interlinking in Credit Markets: The Case of Rural Punjab," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 557-585, October.
    16. Suen, Wing & Chan, William & Zhang, Junsen, 2003. "Marital transfer and intra-household allocation: a Nash-bargaining analysis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 133-146, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schicks, Jessica, 2014. "Over-Indebtedness in Microfinance – An Empirical Analysis of Related Factors on the Borrower Level," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 301-324.
    2. Bruck, Tilman & Schindler, Kati, 2008. "The Impact of Conflict and Fragility on Households: A Conceptual Framework with Reference to Widows," WIDER Working Paper Series 083, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Ganle, John Kuumuori & Afriyie, Kwadwo & Segbefia, Alexander Yao, 2015. "Microcredit: Empowerment and Disempowerment of Rural Women in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 335-345.
    4. Ha van Dung, 2014. "Short-term precaution, insurance and saving mechanisms in rural Vietnam," Working Papers CIE 82, Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics.
    5. Haruna Abdallah Imam & Hardy Tamimu r, 2015. "'Life beyond the Walls of my Hometown': Social Safety Networks as a Coping Strategy for Northern Migrants in Accra," Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, Asian Online Journal Publishing Group, vol. 2(1), pages 25-43.
    6. Salia, Samuel & Hussain, Javed & Tingbani, Ishmael & Kolade, Oluwaseun, 2017. "Is women empowerment a zero Sum game? Unintended Consequences of microfinance for Women’s empowerment in Ghana," MPRA Paper 82895, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 Aug 2017.
    7. World Bank, 2011. "Tackling Poverty in Northern Ghana," World Bank Other Operational Studies 2755, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; Ghana; informal credit; risk management; women;

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp715. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Bibliothek). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.