Gender and Credit Access for Indigenous Rural Businesses in Vietnam and Thailand

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Gender and Credit Access for Indigenous Rural Businesses in Vietnam and Thailand. Using a large panel dataset, the study finds no clear evidence of discrimination against women in loan approval, interest rates, maturity or collateral. Microfinance programmes that serve women and men equally offer models for financial inclusion. Chung Thanh Phan (HAPRI Research Associate), Diem Thi Hong Vo, Daniel Borer, Thuy Minh To. Illustrative photo: on the veranda of a wooden stilt house in a Vietnamese highland village, a woman who runs a small household business goes through a loan ledger with a credit officer at a low table. Woven goods and sacks of produce sit on shelves behind them.

Gender and Credit Access for Indigenous Rural Businesses in Vietnam and Thailand

www.hapri.org

A study co-authored by Chung Thanh Phan (HAPRI Research Associate), Diem Thi Hong Vo, Daniel Borer and Thuy Minh To does not find clear evidence of discrimination against women in loan approval, interest rates, maturity or collateral for rural household entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Thailand. The authors describe this result as surprising.

Context

The authors present indigenous entrepreneurship as offering pathways to a better quality of life while preserving traditional cultures. Within that setting, the study investigates gender-based discrimination in financial access for rural household entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Thailand. The authors also frame the work as helping to decolonize the literature by examining indigenous entrepreneurship in the two countries through localized lenses.

Methods

The authors analyse a large panel dataset using quantitative techniques, including statistical tests, instrumental variables and Heckman selection models.

Key findings

The study does not find clear evidence of discrimination against women in loan approval, interest rates, maturity or collateral.
In Thailand, female-owned enterprises show slightly higher likelihoods of loan approval than male-owned firms.
Thai women entrepreneurs who leverage political connections are more successful when applying for formal loans.
According to the authors, the success of microfinance programs that serve women and men entrepreneurs equally in both countries provides models for financial inclusion.

Policy implications

The study states that persistent colonial attitudes marginalizing indigenous women must still be dismantled through gender norm awareness initiatives.

Keywords:

Gender
Credit Access
Indigenous Entrepreneurship
Microfinance and Financial Inclusion
Vietnam
Thailand

Link:

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54457-6_10

Citation:

Phan, C. T., Vo, D. T. H., Borer, D., & To, T. M. (2024). Gender and Credit Access for Indigenous Rural Self-Employed Businesses: A Case Study in Vietnam and Thailand. Indigenous Entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia, 225-250.