Although a large number of studies have investigated the impacts of microfinance on rural households, their effects on ethnic minorities, who are among the left-behind groups, have not been evaluated. This study examines whether microfinancing provided by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) improves the household welfare of ethnic minorities living in northern mountainous regions of Vietnam. A stratified random sampling technique is applied to a sample of 289 households. Propensity score matching (PSM) is used to estimate the impacts of microfinance loans. Coarsened exact matching (CEM) is employed to verify the consistency of the PSM estimates. The results show positive and consistent impacts of microfinance loans on total expenditure per capita and educational expenditure per student, which supports the welfare effects of microfinance loans on ethnic minorities in northern mountainous areas of Vietnam.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.