Excerpt

Does Women’s Banking Matter for Women? Evidence from Urban India. Rohini Pande, November 16, 2016, Paper, "In many developing countries, women are prevented to take full advantage of the benefits of living in an urban area. In India, while one of every two men participates in the labor market, it is the case just for one of every six women. In this context, it is thought that access to microfinance is key to bridge the gap and to introduce women into the labor force. This is the first project to rigorously evaluate the long term impact of increasing access to microcredit on female labor force participation. In this study, we exploit quasi-experimental variation in women access to microfinance generated by a unique expansion strategy adopted by the oldest Women Bank in the world. From 1999 onward, the “ Shri Mahil Self Employment Women Association Sahkari (SEWA) Bank” massively introduced the use of loan collection officers which dramatically reduced the transaction cost of getting a loan in Ahmedabad, urban India." Link