IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hit/primdp/52.html

Function of Savings and Credit Unions in Laos: From a Village-SCU Survey in Vientiane Vicinity

Author

Listed:
  • Mieno, Fumiharu
  • Chaleunsinh, Chansathith

Abstract

Savings and Credit Unions (SCUs), a type of self-help group, have been rapidly forming in Laotian villages since the early 2000s.This paper investigates their characteristics, activities, and exogenous determinants of their activity based on an original questionnaire survey.It presents a descriptive analysis of endogenous factors such as member ratios and deposit and loan amounts and exogenous factors such as SCUs' age, location, and village characteristics with descriptive analyses.The results revealed that SCUs' membership is formed early in their operating history and remains generally unchanged. Loans for production purposes are a larger percentage of SCUs' lending during their early years, shifting to consumption loans in later years. SCUs' performance features differ after five years in operation and in villages that have diversified away from agriculture. Economic diversification and SCUs' sustainability are related to immigrants settling in villages since the Laotian civil war. We conclude that SCUs serve obvious social and economic purposes and that prospects for their sustainability are greater in villages with diversified economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Mieno, Fumiharu & Chaleunsinh, Chansathith, 2014. "Function of Savings and Credit Unions in Laos: From a Village-SCU Survey in Vientiane Vicinity," PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series 52, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    • Handle: RePEc:hit:primdp:52
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hit-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2054326/files/No52-dp.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McIntosh, Craig & Wydick, Bruce, 2005. "Competition and microfinance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 271-298, December.
    2. Teranishi, Juro, 1994. "Modernization of financial markets: An analysis of informal credit markets in prewar Japan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 315-322, March.
    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. Sengsourivong, Kongpasa & Mieno, Fumiharu, 2014. "Impacts of Savings and Credit Union Programs on Household Welfare in Laos: Case Study of the Vientiane Vicinity during the mid-2000s," PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series 55, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael E. Cummings & Alan Gamlen, 2019. "Diaspora engagement institutions and venture investment activity in developing countries," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(4), pages 289-313, December.
    2. Wadood, Syed Naimul & Mahmoud, Chowdhury Shameem, 2010. "Location Decisions of Microfinance Institutions of Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 88605, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Franklin Allen & Meijun Qian, 2025. "Alternative finance in the international business context: a review and future research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 56(1), pages 43-61, February.
    4. Römer, Ulf & Weber, Ron & Mußhoff, Oliver & Turvey, Calcum G., 2017. "Truth and consequences: Bogus pipeline experiment in informal small business lending," DARE Discussion Papers 1702, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (DARE).
    5. de Quidt, Jonathan & Fetzer, Thiemo & Ghatak, Maitreesh, 2018. "Commercialization and the decline of joint liability microcredit," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 209-225.
    6. Islam, Asadul & Nguyen, Chau & Smyth, Russell, 2015. "Does microfinance change informal lending in village economies? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 141-156.
    7. Ahlin, Christian & Debrah, Godwin, 2022. "Group lending with covariate risk," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    8. Koen Rossel-Cambier, 2010. "Do Multiple Financial Services Enhance the Poverty Outreach of Microfinance Institutions?," Working Papers CEB 10-058, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    9. Nudrat Faria Shreya, 2021. "Are Two Sources of Credit better than One?: Credit Access and Debt among Microfinance Clients in Bangladesh," Studies in Economics 2103, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    10. Annabel Vanroose, 2014. "Factors that explain the regional expansion of microfinance institutions in Peru," Working Papers CEB 14-030, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    11. Randøy, Trond & Strøm, R. Øystein & Mersland, Roy, 2015. "The Impact of Entrepreneur-CEOs in Microfinance Institutions: A Global Survey," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 39(4), pages 927-953.
    12. Sommeno, Tigist Woldetsadik & Mersland, Roy & Randøy, Trond, 2024. "The impact of liability of foreignness on performance in hybrid organizations," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 1-22.
    13. Md Aslam Mia & Lucia Dalla Pellegrina & Cheng Zhang & Sunil Sangwan, 2022. "Efficiency Wage and Productivity in the Indian Microfinance Industry: A Panel Evidence," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 11(2), pages 235-252, July.
    14. Sara Biancini & David Ettinger & Baptiste Venet, 2024. "When pro‐poor microcredit institutions favour richer borrowers: A moral hazard story," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 225-242, February.
    15. McIntosh, Craig & de Janvry, Alain & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 2003. "How Rising Competition Among Microfinance Lenders Affects Incumbent Village Banks," CUDARE Working Papers 25073, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    16. Sara Biancini & David Ettinger & Baptiste Venet, 2021. "When Pro-Poor Microcredit Institutions Favor Richer Borrowers - A Moral Hazard Story," CESifo Working Paper Series 8893, CESifo.
    17. Janda, Karel & Zetek, Pavel, 2014. "Mikrofinanční Revoluce: Aktuální Kontroverze A Výzvy [Microfinance Revolution: Recent Controversies And Challenges]," MPRA Paper 54098, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Mersland, Roy & Strøm, R. Øystein, 2010. "Microfinance Mission Drift?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 28-36, January.
    19. Paal, Beatrix & Wiseman, Thomas, 2011. "Group insurance and lending with endogenous social collateral," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 30-40, January.
    20. Adil EL Fakir & Richard Fairchild & Youssef Lamrani Alaoui & Dora Chan & Mohamed Tkiouat & Zaid Amer, 2024. "Kinship, gender and social links impact on micro group lending defaults," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 2527-2542, April.

    More about this item

    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:hit:primdp:52. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 bibliographic 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.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Digital Resources Section, Hitotsubashi University Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iehitjp.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.