Impact of microfinance on female empowerment: A review of the empirical literature

Sefa Kwami Awaworyi Churchill

doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-8611-3.ch003

Impact of microfinance on female empowerment: A review of the empirical literature

Sefa Kwami Awaworyi Churchill

Department of Economics

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Microfinance is considered a major development tool in most developing countries. Specifically, its interventions have been targeted towards women as an empowerment tool. However, recent systematic reviews report on an inconclusive impact of microfinance on female empowerment. This chapter presents a meta-analysis of the impact of microfinance on five measures of female empowerment used in the empirical literature, namely mobility, decision-making power, control over finance, awareness and women s assets. No evidence of a meaningfully positive impact of microfinance on female empowerment is found. This is evident from all three meta-analysis tools used - fixed effects weighted averages, precision effect and funnel asymmetry tests (PET/FAT), and also the multivariate meta-regression analysis (MRA).

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Contemporary Global Perspectives on Gender Economics
Editors	Susanne Moore
Place of Publication	Hershey PA USA
Publisher	IGI Global
Pages	39 - 54
Number of pages	16
ISBN (Print)	9781466686120
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-8611-3.ch003
Publication status	Published - 2015

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 1 No Poverty
SDG 5 Gender Equality
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

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10.4018/978-1-4666-8611-3.ch003

Cite this

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abstract = "Microfinance is considered a major development tool in most developing countries. Specifically, its interventions have been targeted towards women as an empowerment tool. However, recent systematic reviews report on an inconclusive impact of microfinance on female empowerment. This chapter presents a meta-analysis of the impact of microfinance on five measures of female empowerment used in the empirical literature, namely mobility, decision-making power, control over finance, awareness and women s assets. No evidence of a meaningfully positive impact of microfinance on female empowerment is found. This is evident from all three meta-analysis tools used - fixed effects weighted averages, precision effect and funnel asymmetry tests (PET/FAT), and also the multivariate meta-regression analysis (MRA).",

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