IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ash/wpaper/23.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Can Weak Ties Create Social Capital? Evidence from Self-Help Groups in Rural India

Author

Listed:
  • Ashwini Deshpande

    (Department of Economics, Ashoka University)

  • Shantanu Khanna

    (University of California, Irvine)

Abstract

The “strength of weak ties†has been established in the context of labour market outcomes, with theoretical and empirical investigation showing how weak ties lead to an increase in mobility and job opportunities. The impact of weak ties on community organisation is less well understood. We contribute to this literature by investigating if weak ties, generated via membership of livelihood programmes, can lead to the creation or enhancement of social capital. Based on data from one of the largest independent primary surveys for India, we find that participation in self-help groups had little impact on livelihoods, but led to the creation of significant social capital, as measured by indicators related to personal efficacy and collective action. The bulk of existing evidence on livelihood programmes is based on small samples. Our large sample size and innovative survey design allow us to detect a larger number of effects with greater certainty. We argue that the social capital generated by the programme is a significant positive impact (even though the main target of the programme is to strengthen livelihoods), as it strengthens the process of women’s empowerment.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashwini Deshpande & Shantanu Khanna, 2019. "Can Weak Ties Create Social Capital? Evidence from Self-Help Groups in Rural India," Working Papers 23, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:23
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dp.ashoka.edu.in/ash/wpaper/paper23_0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kundu, AMIT, 2011. "Micro credit and women's agency: a comparative perspective across socio-religious communities in West Bengal, India," MPRA Paper 39632, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Oct 2011.
    2. Hainmueller, Jens, 2012. "Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 25-46, January.
    3. Sascha O. Becker & Marco Caliendo, 2007. "Sensitivity analysis for average treatment effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 7(1), pages 71-83, February.
    4. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    5. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    6. Datta, Upamanyu, 2015. "Socio-Economic Impacts of JEEViKA: A Large-Scale Self-Help Group Project in Bihar, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 1-18.
    7. DiPrete, Thomas A. & Gangl, Markus, 2004. "Assessing bias in the estimation of causal effects: Rosenbaum bounds on matching estimators and instrumental variables estimation with imperfect instruments," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Labor Market Policy and Employment SP I 2004-101, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    8. Ghazala Mansuri, 2004. "Community-Based and -Driven Development: A Critical Review," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 19(1), pages 1-39.
    9. Garikipati, Supriya, 2008. "The Impact of Lending to Women on Household Vulnerability and Women's Empowerment: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2620-2642, December.
    10. Jonathan Morduch, 1999. "The Microfinance Promise," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1569-1614, December.
    11. Raj M. Desai & Shareen Joshi, 2014. "Collective Action and Community Development: Evidence from Self-Help Groups in Rural India," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(3), pages 492-524.
    12. Bruno Crépon & Florencia Devoto & Esther Duflo & William Parienté, 2015. "Estimating the Impact of Microcredit on Those Who Take It Up: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Morocco," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 123-150, January.
    13. Palaniswamy, Nethra & Parthasarathy, Ramya & Rao, Vijayendra, 2019. "Unheard voices: The challenge of inducing women’s civic speech," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 64-77.
    14. Dahal, Mahesh & Fiala, Nathan, 2020. "What do we know about the impact of microfinance? The problems of statistical power and precision," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    15. Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo & Rachel Glennerster & Cynthia Kinnan, 2015. "The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 22-53, January.
    16. Jaikishan Desai & Alessandro Tarozzi, 2011. "Microcredit, Family Planning Programs, and Contraceptive Behavior: Evidence From a Field Experiment in Ethiopia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(2), pages 749-782, May.
    17. Elinor Ostrom, 1994. "6. Constituting Social Capital and Collective Action," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 6(4), pages 527-562, October.
    18. Thomas de Hoop & Luuk van Kempen & Rik Linssen & Anouka van Eerdewijk, 2014. "Women's Autonomy and Subjective Well-Being: How Gender Norms Shape the Impact of Self-Help Groups in Odisha, India," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 103-135, July.
    19. Deshpande, Ashwini & Ramachandran, Rajesh, 2019. "Traditional hierarchies and affirmative action in a globalizing economy: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 63-78.
    20. Deininger, Klaus W. & Liu, Yanyan, 2008. "Economic and Social Impacts of Self-Help Groups in India," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6482, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    21. Goetz, Anne Marie & Gupta, Rina Sen, 1996. "Who takes the credit? Gender, power, and control over loan use in rural credit programs in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 45-63, January.
    22. Robert Garlick & Joshua Hyman, 2022. "Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of Alternative Sample Selection Corrections," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 950-964, June.
    23. Sanyal,Paromita & Rao,Vijayendra & Majumdar,Shruti, 2015. "Recasting culture to undo gender : a sociological analysis of Jeevika in rural Bihar, India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7411, The World Bank.
    24. Kabeer, Naila, 2001. "Conflicts Over Credit: Re-Evaluating the Empowerment Potential of Loans to Women in Rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 63-84, January.
    25. Mosse, David, 2018. "Caste and development: Contemporary perspectives on a structure of discrimination and advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 422-436.
    26. Pandey,Vivek & Gupta,Abhishek & Gupta,Shivani, 2019. "Labor and Welfare Impacts of a Large-Scale Livelihoods Program : Quasi-Experimental Evidence from India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8883, The World Bank.
    27. Carinne Brody & Thomas de Hoop & Martina Vojtkova & Ruby Warnock & Megan Dunbar & Padmini Murthy & Shari L. Dworkin, 2015. "Economic Self‐Help group Programs for Improving Women's Empowerment: A Systematic Review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 1-182.
    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. Xu, Shen & Yin, Bichao & Lou, Chunjie, 2022. "Minority shareholder activism and corporate social responsibility," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    2. Jaemin Lee & Mudit Kumar Singh, 2024. "Expansion, cohesion and diversity: The network advantages of microfinance groups in Indian villages," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 559-586, January.
    3. Bonin, Sandrine & Rashed, Tarek & Nair, Rajiv & Chaudhary, Seema & V.R., Bhanu & Natarajan, Amritha & Bhavani, Rao, 2024. "A financial maturity model for the empowerment of women’s saving groups," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    4. Yasser Razak Hussain & Pranab Mukhopadhyay, 2023. "How Much do Education, Experience, and Social Networks Impact Earnings in India? A Panel Data Analysis Disaggregated by Class, Gender, Caste and Religion," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    5. Saheli Bose, 2023. "The penalty of work from home: gender gap in productivity of unorganised manufacturing firms in India," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 351-369, 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. Sekhon, Sumeet & Grant, Miriam, 2021. "Patterns of loan use for women’s self-help groups in rural Rajasthan," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    2. Desai, Raj M. & Olofsgård, Anders, 2019. "Can the poor organize? Public goods and self-help groups in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 33-52.
    3. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos, 2019. "20 years of research in microfinance: An information management approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 183-197.
    4. Paolo Casini & Lore Vandewalle & Zaki Wahhaj, 2017. "Public Good Provision in Indian Rural Areas: The Returns to Collective Action by Microfinance Groups," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 97-128.
    5. Duvendack, Maren & Palmer-Jones, Richard, 2011. "The microfinance of reproduction and the reproduction of microfinance: understanding the connections between microfinance, empowerment, contraception and fertility in Bangladesh in the 1990s," MPRA Paper 32384, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. 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.
    7. Simon Zaby, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Microfinance: Influential Authors and Documents, 1989–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    8. Turati, Riccardo, 2024. "Network Abroad and Culture: Global Individual-Level Evidence," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1488, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Paul Anand & Swati Saxena & Rolando Gonzales Martinez & Hai-Anh H. Dang, 2020. "Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 137-160, April.
    10. Hillesland, Marya & Kaaria, Susan & Mane, Erdgin & Alemu, Mihret & Slavchevska, Vanya, 2022. "Does a joint United Nations microfinance ‘plus’ program empower female farmers in rural Ethiopia? Evidence using the pro-WEAI," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    11. Nyarko, Samuel Anokye, 2022. "Gender discrimination and lending to women: The moderating effect of an international founder," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4).
    12. Diego Vera-Cossio, 2022. "Targeting Credit through Community Members," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 778-821.
    13. Agier, Isabelle & Szafarz, Ariane, 2013. "Microfinance and Gender: Is There a Glass Ceiling on Loan Size?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 165-181.
    14. Maren Duvendack & Richard Palmer-Jones, 2012. "High Noon for Microfinance Impact Evaluations: Re-investigating the Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(12), pages 1864-1880, December.
    15. Masselus, Lise & Petrik, Christina & Ankel-Peters, Jörg, 2024. "Lost in the design space? Construct validity in the microfinance literature," Ruhr Economic Papers 1097, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    16. Namizata Binaté Fofana & Gerrit Antonides & Anke Niehof & Johan Ophem, 2015. "How microfinance empowers women in Côte d’Ivoire," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 1023-1041, December.
    17. Riccardo Turati, 2020. "Network-based Connectedness and the Diffusion of Cultural Traits," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2020012, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    18. Hoffmann, Vivian & Rao, Vijayendra & Surendra, Vaishnavi & Datta, Upamanyu, 2021. "Relief from usury: Impact of a self-help group lending program in rural India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    19. N. Rajagopal, 2020. "Social Impact of Women SHGs: A Study of NHGs of ‘Kudumbashree’ in Kerala," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 45(3), pages 317-336, August.
    20. Huis, Marloes & Lensink, Robert & Vu, Nhung & Hansen, Nina, 2019. "Impacts of the Gender and Entrepreneurship Together Ahead (GET Ahead) training on empowerment of female microfinance borrowers in Northern Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 46-61.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    India;

    JEL classification:

    • O20 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General
    • O22 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Project Analysis
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ash:wpaper:23. 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: Ashoka University (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ashoka.edu.in .

    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.