Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of microfinance programs on the income and food expenditure of farm and nonfarm households in Thailand.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs secondary data from the Thai Socioeconomic Survey (cross-sectional data from 2017 and panel data from 2012 to 2017). The cross-sectional data (2017) include 43,210 households. Panel data from the 2012 and 2017 Socioeconomic surveys (SES surveys) include 4,406 households. The estimation methods include propensity score matching (PSM) and a fixed effect (FE) model.

Findings

The result shows that village funds (VFs) have a significant negative impact on income and food expenditure for both farm and nonfarm households. The empirical results reveal that the saving groups for production (SGPs) effects are positively significant in terms of income and food expenditure, but only for farm households. The FE model result also shows that while VFs have a negative impact on income they have a positive impact on food expenditure for farm households. In contrast, SPGs have no impact on both farm and nonfarm households' income and food expenditure.

Practical implications

Farm and nonfarm households require both welfare and microfinance programs. Microfinance programs can only help these households once they have the necessary education. The government should provide social programs and business skills for these households; completion of these courses should be a pre-requisite for accessing microfinance programs.

Originality/value

This study is unique because it reveals the microfinance impact between VFs and SGPs programs so that most low-income and poor people in Thailand can access basic financial services.

中文翻译：

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泰国小额信贷计划的影响

目的

本文的目的是分析小额信贷计划对泰国农场和非农场家庭收入和食品支出的影响。

设计/方法/方法

该研究采用了泰国社会经济调查的二手数据（2017 年的横截面数据和 2012 年至 2017 年的面板数据）。横截面数据（2017 年）包括 43,210 户。2012 年和 2017 年社会经济调查（SES 调查）的面板数据包括 4,406 户家庭。估计方法包括倾向得分匹配 (PSM) 和固定效应 (FE) 模型。

发现

结果表明，乡村基金 (VF) 对农业和非农家庭的收入和食品支出都有显着的负面影响。实证结果表明，生产储蓄群体 (SGPs) 效应在收入和食品支出方面呈正显着性，但仅限于农户。FE 模型结果还表明，虽然 VF 对收入有负面影响，但对农户的食品支出有积极影响。相比之下，SPG 对农场和非农场家庭的收入和食品支出都没有影响。

实际影响

农场和非农场家庭需要福利和小额信贷计划。小额信贷计划只有在这些家庭接受了必要的教育后才能帮助他们。政府应为这些家庭提供社会项目和商业技能；完成这些课程应该是参加小额信贷计划的先决条件。

原创性/价值

这项研究是独一无二的，因为它揭示了 VF 和 SGP 计划之间的小额信贷影响，以便泰国的大多数低收入和穷人可以获得基本的金融服务。