1Department of Economics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Journal of Food Security.
2020,
Vol. 8 No. 3, 89-97
DOI: 10.12691/jfs-8-3-2
Copyright © 2020 Science and Education PublishingCite this paper: Md. Adnan Shahid, Alok Bohara. Does Microfinance Increase Food Security? Evidence from Nepal.
Journal of Food Security. 2020; 8(3):89-97. doi: 10.12691/jfs-8-3-2.
Correspondence to: Md. Adnan Shahid, Department of Economics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Email:
adnan.dani.shahid@gmail.comAbstract
This paper estimates the impact of participation in a microfinance program on household food security using primary data from Nepal. We also disentangle the relationship by gender. Using variants of propensity score matching to adequately address endogeneity of our treatment variable, we find evidence that microfinance has a positive effect on household food security measured by food consumption score. We also present evidence of significant increase in household food security when women are program participants. In comparison, we find no significant gender difference in the effect of microfinance on household food security status.
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