Essays on Access to Credit by Households in Mekong Delta of Vietnam

This book studies the essays on access to credit of the households in the Mekong Delta (MD) of Vietnam. The chapter two investigate the factors affecting the access of rural households to formal (individual and group-based) credit in the MD. The results of a Double hurdle model and a Heckman selection model suggest that household capital endowments, marital status, family size, proximity of the market centre and location affect both the probability of access to credit and the amount of credit demand. Chapter 3 studies the impact of access to formal microcredit on household livelihood indicators is studied, by using propensity score matching methods. Findings show that income and expenditure levels were significantly higher for group-based borrowers than for non-borrowers. In chapter 4, the repayment performances of individual and group-based schemes are compared. Results show that farmers have a significantly higher repayment performance than non-farmers. Chapter 5 gives an overview of the main findings, presents policy proposals towards enhancing financial development and households' living standards, and proposes possible directions for further research.