Research/academic paper

Impact of Access to Microcredit on the Well-being of Households and Poverty Change in Cameroon: 2001 – 2007 – Research paper

Using data from the second and third Cameroonian household surveys, this study analyzes the relationship between access to microcredit, household well-being, and poverty change in Cameroon. It uses a combination of two methods of analysis: the instrumental variable method for controlling the potential endogeneity of access to increased microcredit by correcting for selection bias; and a method for breaking down poverty change into intra-growth, intra-redistribution, and inter-sector mobility components based on Shapley’s value. The latter is based on comparison of evidence based and hypothetical/non-factual distributions. The key findings reveal that access to microcredit:
(i) significantly and positively affects the level of well-being of households and
financial inclusion, particularly through education;
(ii) has an impact on poverty change and that this effect is brought about by the
redistribution component and primary sector;
(iii) positively and significantly influences the intra-sector redistribution component
of poverty change through the intra-sector growth and mobility components.