Evaluation of Impacts of Access to Credit and Loan Size for Microcredit Clients in South Africa

This study has been completed.

Sponsors and Collaborators:	Innovations for Poverty Action Broadening Access and Strengthening Input Market Systems/USAID U.S. National Science Foundation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Princeton University Center for Migration Social Science Research Council Program in Applied Economics Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Information provided by:	Innovations for Poverty Action
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00700349

Purpose

This study involves randomization of individuals who were initially rejected from a micro-lending organization in South Africa. Subjects were placed into two arms: (1) not receiving a loan; (2) being reconsidered for a "second look." Of those in the second arm, 53% were then selected by the organization's loan officers to receive a standard loan for first-time borrowers. Mental health and financial data were collected at one timepoint: approximately 6-12 months after the subjects first applied for the loan.

Condition	Intervention
Mental Health Depression Stress	Other: Small loan

MedlinePlus related topics: Depression Mental Health

U.S. FDA Resources

Study Type:	Interventional
Study Design:	Randomized, Single Blind (Outcomes Assessor), Parallel Assignment
Official Title:	Evaluation of Impacts of Access to Credit and Loan Size for Microcredit Clients in South Africa

Further study details as provided by Innovations for Poverty Action:

Primary Outcome Measures:

Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), a 20-item questionnaire (0 = no risk, 60 = highest risk) [ Time Frame: At follow-up (6-12 months after subject enrollment) ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
Perceived stress, measured using the Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), a 10-item questionnaire (0 = no stress, 40 = high stress) [ Time Frame: At follow-up (6-12 months after subject enrollment) ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Secondary Outcome Measures:

Household income, measured by a variety of questions that asked about all sources of income obtained by all members of the applicant's household. [ Time Frame: At follow-up (6-12 months after subject enrollment) ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Enrollment:	3000
Study Start Date:	September 2004
Study Completion Date:	November 2005
Primary Completion Date:	November 2005 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)

Arms	Assigned Interventions
1: No Intervention Individuals who were rejected from receiving a loan from a micro-lending organization were randomized to continue receiving no loan.
2: Experimental Individuals who were rejected from receiving a loan from a micro-lending organization were randomized to receive a "second look," to be reconsidered for a loan by loan officers.	Other: Small loan Applicants in the treatment group were offered an interest rate, loan size, and maturity per the lender's standard underwriting criteria, involving a 4-month maturity at 11.75% per month, charged on the original balance (200% annual percentage rate).

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:	18 Years and older
Genders Eligible for Study:	Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:	No

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Subjects were recruited from those who had been rejected from a lending organization for non-fraudulent or non-overindebtness reasons.

Exclusion Criteria:

None.

Contacts and Locations

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00700349

Locations

South Africa
Innovations for Poverty Action
Cape Town, South Africa
Innovations for Poverty Action
Durban, South Africa
Innovations for Poverty Action
Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Sponsors and Collaborators

Innovations for Poverty Action

Broadening Access and Strengthening Input Market Systems/USAID

U.S. National Science Foundation

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Princeton University Center for Migration

Social Science Research Council Program in Applied Economics

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Investigators

Principal Investigator:	Dean Karlan, PhD	Innovations for Poverty Action
Principal Investigator:	Jonathan Zinman, PhD	Dartmouth University
Principal Investigator:	Lia Fernald, PhD	University of California, Berkeley

More Information

Responsible Party:	Innovations for Poverty Action ( Dean Karlan )
Study ID Numbers:	IPA-2004-SA
Study First Received:	June 16, 2008
Last Updated:	June 17, 2008
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00700349
Health Authority:	United States: Institutional Review Board

Keywords provided by Innovations for Poverty Action:

depression
stress
microcredit
poverty
South Africa

Study placed in the following topic categories:

Depression
Mental Disorders
Mood Disorders

Stress
Depressive Disorder
Behavioral Symptoms

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on January 16, 2009