TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-help groups, savings and social capital
T2 - Evidence from a field experiment in Cambodia
AU - Ban, Radu
AU - Gilligan, Michael J.
AU - Rieger, Matthias
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor Laura Schechter for detailed and most helpful comments. This research collaboration was initiated by Development Impact Evaluation's (DIME's) IE in Fragile States program and received funding from the Knowledge for Change Program (KCP). The authors would like to thank Marcus Holmlund (World Bank) for his role in client engagement, data collection, and securing funding for the study. We are grateful to Younell Hay, Top Neth and Mok Tonh of the LEAP team and to Mudita Chamroeun, World Bank LEAP task team leader, for supporting this impact evaluation. We would like to thank Ramji Dhakal, Ly Vouchlong, Pong Pheakdey Boramy, Chea Bunnary, Hang Chansophea, Soklang Kheang, Va Wisal, and SBK Research and Development for collecting the data used in this study. We have received helpful comments in seminars at ETH Zurich, Wageningen University and DIW Berlin.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Do self-help groups (SHGs), village-based associations designed to encourage savings, household production and social cohesion among the poor, meet their goals? We examine economic outcomes and the pro-social behavior of 540 households in a randomized control trial (RCT) of a SHG program (randomized at the commune level) in rural Siem Reap, Cambodia using survey data and a rich set of economic and social capital indicators. We measured social capital—defined as social norms and the social networks that support them—with household and network surveys and lab activities that gauge altruism, trust, trustworthiness and the willingness to contribute to public goods. We find that the program successfully increased participation in SHGs and strengthened SHG-related networks. As intended the program significantly increased the number of households with non-zero savings as well as savings levels and it led to a noticeable shift in household production towards livestock. We cannot document increases in household incomes, assets or expenditure. There were also no sizeable wider effects on social capital and networks other than those related to SHGs directly, although we cannot statistically rule out small positive effects in the case of some social capital indicators. In addition to these empirical findings the study provides an example of innovative program evaluation techniques that employed a field experiment, lab-in-the-field behavioral measures, network measures as well as traditional survey measures.
AB - Do self-help groups (SHGs), village-based associations designed to encourage savings, household production and social cohesion among the poor, meet their goals? We examine economic outcomes and the pro-social behavior of 540 households in a randomized control trial (RCT) of a SHG program (randomized at the commune level) in rural Siem Reap, Cambodia using survey data and a rich set of economic and social capital indicators. We measured social capital—defined as social norms and the social networks that support them—with household and network surveys and lab activities that gauge altruism, trust, trustworthiness and the willingness to contribute to public goods. We find that the program successfully increased participation in SHGs and strengthened SHG-related networks. As intended the program significantly increased the number of households with non-zero savings as well as savings levels and it led to a noticeable shift in household production towards livestock. We cannot document increases in household incomes, assets or expenditure. There were also no sizeable wider effects on social capital and networks other than those related to SHGs directly, although we cannot statistically rule out small positive effects in the case of some social capital indicators. In addition to these empirical findings the study provides an example of innovative program evaluation techniques that employed a field experiment, lab-in-the-field behavioral measures, network measures as well as traditional survey measures.
KW - Cambodia
KW - Field experiments
KW - Poverty
KW - Savings
KW - Self-help groups
KW - Social capital
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.09.029
DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.09.029
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85093693666
VL - 180
SP - 174
EP - 200
JO - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
JF - Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
SN - 0167-2681
ER -