Credit from whom and for what? The diversity of borrowing sources and uses in rural southern India
✍ Scribed by Isabelle Guérin; Marc Roesch; Govidan Venkatasubramanian; Bert D'Espallier
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 137 KB
- Volume
- 24
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0954-1748
- DOI
- 10.1002/jid.1785
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
This article aimed to deepen understandings of poor household borrowing practices by drawing on a case study from rural Southern India. It combines descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis to show that households juggle with a wide range of borrowing sources and that each serves very specific purposes. From a theoretical perspective, we suggest that the neoclassical cost/benefit framework often used to analyse debt decisions should be enlarged to include social criteria in line with recent insights from economic anthropology and political economy. From a policy perspective, we argue that all things being equal, local financial arrangements might have important comparative advantages over traditional microfinance products. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.