Impact of Microcredit on Housing and Food Security in Nepal

Abstract

This paper intends to assess the impact of microcredit on housing and food security in Nepal. The multivariate techniques used to achieve the objectives of the study. The study uses Nepal Living Standard Survey2011 data, which covers 5,988 households. Considering the endogeneity in the microcredit participation of household, the study uses instrumental variable technique (IV method) for assessing the impact of microcredit on housing and food security After the adjustment of the endogeneity, distance of bank, distance of cooperative from household and holding of land size of household as the instruments, eligible household reduced 475 household from 779 total households of intervention group and similarly 2,953 households from 5,209 total households of control group. CMP (conditional mixed process) estimator used to give flexibility in terms of combining continuous and binary variables together in the same model. Multivariate analysis indicates that it has positive and significant relationship on housing and food security (construction material, ownership status, sources of electricity, structural condition, sources of drinking, maintenance of house, consumption of cereals, consumption of veg, consumption of milk, consumption of egg, consumption of meat, food diversity) on intervention group than the control group. The results and findings of this study and review of the literatures in the paper provided a wide range of evidence that microcredit programs can increase incomes and lift families out of poverty. Microcredit would be a viable and potentially sustainable tool to reduce poverty level in Nepal.