During the last 30 years, the microfi nance industry has developed and spread around the world. Along with its development, there has been an increased focus on analyzing its impact on the wellbeing of the benefi ciaries. In Mali, microfi nance started in the 1980s, and recent successive governments were particularly interested in it as a tool for fi ghting against poverty and gender inequality. Th erefore, the implementation of microfi nance programs in this country took into account the situations of gender inequality as an important consideration.Th e gender position in the microfi nance literature fundamentally postulates the particularity of women who are viewed (as clients) as being more able to achieve high-quality performance in terms of loan repayment compared with men ( Yunus, 1997 ), and at the same time they use microfi nance services more eff ectively for household-welfare-related purposes ( Khandker, 1998( Khandker, , 2003. In this paper, we look at the gender question from the angle of impact on poverty. Our objective is to rigorously verify if the potential eff ects of microcredit on poverty reduction are of more signifi cance for female than for male benefi ciaries. Th e data set we are using comes from surveys conducted in 2007-2008 in Mali. Th is data set is of high importance because it includes gendered information on the use of microcredit, in addition to covering a large sample that compares 2400 microfinance client households among which around 70% are microcredit benefi ciaries. Since the collected data is not randomized, in order to conduct a statistically valid comparison between microcredit benefi ciaries and non-benefi ciaries, we use the statistical method of propensity score matching (PSM), which we will discuss in detail.Females benefi t in the long term while males benefi t in the short term.Only males benefi t signifi cantly in the rural areas.Our results indicate a negative, though non-signifi cant, impact of microfi nance on male benefi ciaries in urban areas.1 JEL classifi cation codes: C2, D63, G21, I32, J16. M icrofi nance in M ali has a positive impact on poverty alleviation in total and higher on female than on male benefi ciaries.

Purpose Microfinance impact evaluation studies help in discovering client needs which are diverse, special and different from the needs of the conventional bankable clients. Thus, such area of market research is becoming essential for microfinance institutions for designing better client-centred products. In this research, the authors discuss the specific model of household economic portfolio (HEP) for qualitative impact evaluation in microfinance. The paper aims to discuss the complexity limitations of the HEP. Solutions are provided for overcoming these limitations. The modified household economic portfolio (M-HEP) model is simplified and detailed, and two types of diaries are suggested for implementing it. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors briefly review the literature on impact assessment methods in microfinance and on the HEP model. In the second part of the paper, the M-HEP is suggested and discussed in detail. In the third part, the authors present a case study to illustrate the additional information that can be generated by using our suggested research tool and model. Finally, the authors wrap up with a summary of the findings. Findings Solutions are provided for overcoming the limitations of the HEP model. The suggested model (M-HEP) is simplified and detailed, and two types of diaries are suggested for implementing it. The case study shows that, certainly, time and money are related. While time may mean money for a rich person, for a poor person, if money is not forthcoming, she may spend time on non-income generating work that adds to her social esteem. She may also consume inexpensive assets because spending time at low cost is important. Finally, she spends time in conducting activities for which she cannot afford to pay. Originality/value The paper offers two novelties. First, it details the interactions between the elements of the HEP model of Chen and Dunn. This improvement to the original model is highly important for defining the measures that are required for redrawing the economic portfolio of an individual. The second novelty is in suggesting the collection of time-use and financial daily data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a combined diary is used in microfinance research. These two novelties allow the application of a modified version of the highly interesting HEP model in spite of its complexity.

No abstract

Understanding the behavior of the poor has long been an important focus of microfi nance (MF) research. On the one hand, several studies have been conducted to understand the fi nancial decisions of MF clients related to the construction of trustworthiness and social collateral (which replaces fi nancial collateral in MF loans). On the other hand, the natural counterpart of trustworthiness (i.e., risk taking) has been another main point of focus when evaluating MF clients ' behavior. Yet, most of these studies remain observational, use standard surveys about behavior, or make use of fi nancial information only -as found in many qualitative impact assessments and econometric studies. Th erefore, the usual biases when reporting stated behavior, in particular about items that are diffi cult to rationalize (such as trustworthiness and risk taking), are diffi cult to capture. Only recently have experimental games become popular in MF to gain deeper insights into MF clients and reduce these biases.Overall, the fi nancial decisions of MF clients seem complex to MF practitioners, who increasingly question the needs and wants of poor MF clients, especially after the recent crises in the MF industry. Two of the most documented diffi culties that MF institutions (MFIs) usually face are the adverse selection problem and the absence of fi nancial collateral provided by the borrower ( Giné et al ., 2010 ). In other words, MFIs serve clients without credit history, and are therefore unable to predict their willingness or ability to repay the loan. Moreover, these clients live in social neighborhoods where no one around has fi nancial reserves to cover a Microfi nance clients reveal safer fi nancial behaviors compared with non-microfi nance clients.The self-esteem of microfi nance clients is higher compared with non-microfi nance clients.MFIs should investigate in detail the structure of the social neighborhood prior to client selection.

We present a field experiment investigating the mechanism by which community currencies enhance trust. Our question is the following: do I trust more when using a community currency because I am a trusting-type person or because I think that you are trustworthy? We call the former preference-based trust; while the latter is belief-based trust. We apply a modification of the standard trust game from the experimental economics literature to disentangle these mechanisms. Player A has to choose whether or not to trust player B, and player B can either reciprocate that trust or not. Our innovation is in experimentally separating the currency in which the game is played ( effective currency), from the currency preferred by the participant ( preferred currency). If the mechanism is preference-based, then preferred currency will determine trust more than effective; if it is belief-based, then the effective currency will be determinant. We find strong evidence of the preference-based mechanism of community currencies on trust, and only weak evidence of the belief-based mechanism.