Gender differences in formal credit approaches: rural households in Vietnam |
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| Authors: | Thi Kieu Van Tran Ehsan Elahi Liqin Zhang Muhammad Abid Quang Trung Pham Thuy Duong Tran |
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| Affiliation: | 1. College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University;2. School of Business, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology;3. Center for Climate Research and Development (CCRD), COMSATS Institute of Information Technology;4. Central Institute of Economic Management |
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| Abstract: | In Vietnam, women have poorer access to formal credit than men. This article determines the extent to which borrowing constraints restrict women’s access to formal credit and identifies the socioeconomic characteristics that determine formal credit discrimination. The study used secondary data from the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey (VARHS) published in 2013–14, and analysis was undertaken by econometric approaches such as logistic and multiple linear regression models and propensity score matching methods. The results show that among those participants who successfully obtained credit, approximately 85 per cent of women obtained less credit than men; and the amount of credit that women obtained was also less (on average, approximately 1.8 per cent less). Gender, number of years of schooling, marital status, participation in agricultural activities, off‐farm employment, and ownership of agricultural land for a male‐headed household positively influenced discrimination in obtaining credit and the amount of credit obtained. Moreover, the propensity score matching results found that the average increase in the credit obtained by males was 220,000 Vietnamese Dong (VND) and this is mainly due to discrimination in favour of men. The results suggest that policy action is needed to avoid discrimination in credit disbursement on the basis of gender. |
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