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Microfinance and happiness

Author

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  • Becchetti, Leonardo

    () (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)

  • Conzo, Pierluigi

    () (Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit)

Abstract

Microfinance institutions are used to claim that their impact goes beyond money since rescuing from exclusion uncollateralized poor borrowers significantly affects their dignity, self-esteem, social recognition and, through it, life satisfaction. Our paper aims to verify indirectly this claim by evaluating whether access to microfinance loans has significant impact on life satisfaction beyond its indirect impact via income changes. Our empirical findings on a sample of poor borrowers in the suburbs of Buenos Aires show that, after controlling for survivorship bias, the number of credit cycles has a significant and positive effect on life satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Becchetti, Leonardo & Conzo, Pierluigi, 2010. "Microfinance and happiness," AICCON Working Papers 69-2010, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:aiccon:2010_069
    Note: Reference authors: leonardo.becchetti@uniroma2.it pierluigi.conzo@uniroma2.it
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Robert J. MacCulloch & Rafael Di Tella & Andrew J. Oswald, 2001. "Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment: Evidence from Surveys of Happiness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 335-341, March.
    2. Armendariz de Aghion, Beatriz, 1999. "On the design of a credit agreement with peer monitoring," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 79-104, October.
    3. Gardner, Jonathan & Oswald, Andrew, 2004. "How is mortality affected by money, marriage, and stress?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1181-1207, November.
    4. Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell & Paul Frijters, 2004. "How Important is Methodology for the estimates of the determinants of Happiness?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(497), pages 641-659, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Rode, 2013. "Do Good Institutions Make Citizens Happy, or Do Happy Citizens Build Better Institutions?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1479-1505, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    microfinance; happiness; impact study;

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