Impact of microfinance on income generation: Evidence from a rural community-driven development programme in Myanmar

This paper evaluates the impact of a rural community-driven development programme in Myanmar, which promoted village-level microfinance for income generation. Utilizing a three-round household survey consisting of 100 treatment and 50 comparison villages with approximately 8500 households per round, we employ difference-in-differences and two-stage least squares estimations. Our analysis shows three key findings. First, the programme significantly increased access to microfinance, primarily for production. Second, formal and informal finance were substituted in part with village-level microfinance. As a result, treated households were less likely to borrow money from formal banks or informal lenders such as their relatives, friends or neighbours. Third, the village-level microfinance nudged rural households to harvest, yield and sell their products more, which led to increase in seasonal income. Our study suggests that microfinance targeted for productive investment can significantly improve income of rural households in developing economies.