Who benefits the most from micro-credit? Micro-level evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

James, E, Bakas, D ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4771-4505, Thompson, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1961-7441 and Ebireri, J ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8730-1057, 2025. Who benefits the most from micro-credit? Micro-level evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. World Development, 193: 107023. ISSN 0305-750X

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Abstract

This paper moves beyond typical mean effect analysis to examine who truly benefits from micro-credit. Utilising household-level panel data from 2010 to 2019 for a sample of Sub-Saharan African countries, via a quantile panel framework, we show that micro-credit has positive outcomes for households below specific welfare levels in low and lower-middle income countries. Conversely, the impact is less pronounced for wealthier households. Our results highlight inequalities in welfare outcomes, particularly favouring households in low to median quantiles. Notably, the effects of micro-credit vary across countries’ welfare levels, with significant impacts observed in low income countries. Policy recommendations emphasise targeting micro-credit interventions towards low to median welfare households to enhance welfare outcomes.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	World Development
Creators:	James, E., Bakas, D., Thompson, P. and Ebireri, J.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	September 2025
Volume:	193
ISSN:	0305-750X
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107023 DOI 2421834 Other
Rights:	© 2025 the authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	04 Apr 2025 09:01
Last Modified:	07 May 2025 12:18
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53356

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