The impact of microcredit on rural households in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam

Abstract

This paper evaluates how microcredit affects rural households in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam using the propensity score matching methods. The results show that the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) microcredit program has a significant positive impact on household consumption but no significant impact on household income. In addition, the findings show greater consumption and income impact for the ‘true poor’ when only the poor group is included in the analysis. This implies that this group benefits more from participating in the microcredit program than low-income households.