From Pawn Shops to Banks : The Impact of Formal Credit on Informal Households
This paper examines the effects of expanding access to credit on the decisions and welfare of households. It focuses on the entry of Banco Azteca, the first bank in Mexico targeting households from the informal sector. Panel data suggest that infor...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/10/18343587/pawn-shops-banks-impact-formal-credit-informal-households http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16851 |
Summary: | This paper examines the effects of
expanding access to credit on the decisions and welfare of
households. It focuses on the entry of Banco Azteca, the
first bank in Mexico targeting households from the informal
sector. Panel data suggest that informal households in
municipalities with Banco Azteca branches experienced
several changes in their saving, credit and consumption
patterns. In order to estimate the impact of Azteca's
entry, the paper develops a dynamic model of household
choices in which the bank is endogenously selecting the
municipalities for branch openings. The analysis finds that
in municipalities in which the bank entered, households were
better able to smooth their consumption and accumulate more
durable goods even though the overall proportion of
households that save went down by 6.6 percent. These results
suggest that the use of savings as a buffer on income
fluctuations declines once formal credit is available. What
is more, these effects vary across households. Among
informal households, those who never receive formal job
offers have the highest decline in saving rates. The model
is also used to evaluate a legislation to cap interest rates
levied by formal credit institutions. Simulations suggest
that if the Mexican government were to cap the interest rate
of Azteca at the rate for traditional banks, Azteca would
stop operating in the poorest and least populated municipalities. |
---|