IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/iimkoz/v4y2015i2p166-169.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Should Flexibility Matter? A Poor Consumer’s Perspective of Flexible Micro Loans

Author

Listed:
  • Rahul Kumar Sett

Abstract

Repayment schedules characterizing a typical micro loan are rigid and offer little to no flexibility in terms of rescheduling repayments when faced with emerging contingencies. Such rigid structures affect the economic as well as the psychological well-being of the poor leading to underinvestment of the borrowed capital, lower motivational levels and lowered sense of psychological well-being among the underprivileged. Flexibility in loan contracts and repayment schedules can alleviate these adverse effects on the poor and bring the microfinance institutions closer to their goal of poverty alleviation and welfare objectives. In this article, a case is made in favour of flexible loan contracts and repayment schedules based on the psychological underpinnings of decision making among the underprivileged. Implications of such loan contracts on consumer welfare and the microfinance institutions (MFIs) are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Rahul Kumar Sett, 2015. "Should Flexibility Matter? A Poor Consumer’s Perspective of Flexible Micro Loans," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 4(2), pages 166-169, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:iimkoz:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:166-169
    DOI: 10.1177/2277975215607261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2277975215607261
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2277975215607261?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Drazen Prelec & George Loewenstein, 1998. "The Red and the Black: Mental Accounting of Savings and Debt," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 4-28.
    2. Steve Boucher & Catherine Guirkinger, 2007. "Risk, Wealth, and Sectoral Choice in Rural Credit Markets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(4), pages 991-1004.
    3. Shonchoy, Abu S. & Kurosaki, Takashi, 2014. "Impact of seasonality-adjusted flexible microcredit on repayment and food consumption : experimental evidence from rural Bangladesh," IDE Discussion Papers 460, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    4. Erica Field & Rohini Pande & John Papp & Y Jeanette Park, 2012. "Repayment Flexibility Can Reduce Financial Stress: A Randomized Control Trial with Microfinance Clients in India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-7, September.
    5. Boucher, Stephen R. & Guirkinger, Catherine, 2007. "AJAE Appendix: Risk, Wealth and Sectoral Choice in Rural Credit Markets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics APPENDICES, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(4), pages 1-4, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Snigdha Choudhury, 2024. "Exigency-driven Academic Motivation of Learners: A Comparative Analysis During COVID and pre-COVID Scenario," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 13(1), pages 101-114, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Islam, Asadul & Nguyen, Chau & Smyth, Russell, 2015. "Does microfinance change informal lending in village economies? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 141-156.
    2. Conning, Jonathan & Udry, Christopher, 2007. "Rural Financial Markets in Developing Countries," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 56, pages 2857-2908, Elsevier.
    3. Jiang, Meishan & Li, Jingrong & Mi, Yunsheng, 2024. "Farmers’ cooperatives and smallholder farmers’ access to credit: Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Mekdim D. Regassa & Mohammed B. Degnet & Mequanint B. Melesse, 2023. "Access to credit and heterogeneous effects on agricultural technology adoption: Evidence from large rural surveys in Ethiopia," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 71(2), pages 231-253, June.
    5. Catherine Guirkinger & Stephen R. Boucher, 2008. "Credit constraints and productivity in Peruvian agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(3), pages 295-308, November.
    6. Debdatta Pal & Arnab Laha, 2014. "Credit off-take from formal financial institutions in rural India: quantile regression results," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-20, December.
    7. Carolina Laureti & Alain De Janvry & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2017. "Flexible Microfinance Products for Financial Management by the Poor: Evidence from SafeSave," Working Papers CEB 17-036, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Bach Nguyen & Nguyen Phuc Canh, 2021. "Formal and informal financing decisions of small businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1545-1567, October.
    9. Togba, Edith Leadaut, 2012. "Microfinance and households access to credit: Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 473-486.
    10. Jon Einar Flatnes, 2021. "Information Sharing and Rationing in Credit Markets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(3), pages 944-960, May.
    11. Marcello Pagnini & Paola Rossi & Valerio Vacca & Carmen Kislat & Lukas Menkhoff & Doris Neuberger, 2017. "Credit Market Structure and Collateral in Rural Thailand," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 46(3), pages 587-632, November.
    12. Mukasa Adamon N. & Anthony M. Simpasa & Adeleke Oluwole Salami, 2017. "Working Paper 247 - Credit constraints and farm productivity: Micro-level evidence from smallholder farmers in Ethiopia," Working Paper Series 2356, African Development Bank.
    13. Balana, Bedru & Oyeyemi, Motunrayo, 2021. "Credit Constraints and Adoption of Agricultural Technologies in Developing Countries? Evidence from Nigeria," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315347, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Marc Labie & Carolina Laureti & Ariane Szafarz, 2016. "Discipline and Flexibility: A Behavioral Perspective on Product Design in Microfinance," Working Papers CEB 15-020, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    15. Bach Nguyen, 2022. "Small business investment: The importance of financing strategies and social networks," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 2849-2872, July.
    16. Bhattamishra, Ruchira & Barrett, Christopher B., 2010. "Community-Based Risk Management Arrangements: A Review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 923-932, July.
    17. Edward B. Barbier & Ramón E. López & Jacob P. Hochard, 2016. "Debt, Poverty and Resource Management in a Rural Smallholder Economy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 411-427, February.
    18. Wichyada Tanomchat & San Sampattavanija, 2018. "Dependence of Informal Interest Rates and Level of Lenders’ Influence in the Informal Loan Market in Thailand," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 24(1), pages 47-63, February.
    19. Keenan, Donald C. & Snow, Arthur, 2022. "Reversibly greater downside risk aversion by a prudence-based measure," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    20. Keenan, Donald C. & Snow, Arthur, 2010. "Greater prudence and greater downside risk aversion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(5), pages 2018-2026, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:iimkoz:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:166-169. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.