Evaluation of the impact of Village Savings and Loan Associations using a novel survey instrument

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of treatment and control groups.

Control variable	Treatment group	Control group	Test statistic
N	120	50
Gender (% female)	0.68	0.72	0.58
Age	37.95	33.64	2.18**
Age at time of joining	33.19	33.64	0.23
Religion (%)
Muslim	0.97	1.00	1.31
Christian	0.03	0.00	1.13
Other	0.01	0.00	0.65
Marital status (%)
Married	0.75	0.70	0.67
Widowed	0.08	0.08	0.07
Divorced	0.05	0.08	0.76
Separated	0.02	0.00	0.92
Single	0.10	0.14	0.75
Educational attainment (%)
No education	0.13	0.20	1.10
Primary	0.48	0.20	3.34***
Ordinary level	0.16	0.32	2.38**
Advanced level	0.23	0.28	0.64
Number of children	3.73	2.62	2.72***
Number of children at time of joining	3.08	2.62	1.14
Savings prior to joining VSLA? (%)	0.48	0.36	1.38
Access to loans prior to joining? (%)	0.08	0.08	0.11

Notes: VSLA = Village Savings and Loan Association. Means for the treatment and control groups were compared using t tests for non-proportions and a proportions test to compare proportions. The reported test statistics are t statistics for non-proportions and z statistics for proportions. Statistically significant results are indicated as follows: ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05.

Table 2. Comparison of control variables with treatment group divided by median years in VSLA.

Control variable	Mean/percentage			Test statistic
	Older	Recent	New	Recent–Older	Recent–New	Older–New
n	63	57	50
Gender (% female)	0.71	0.63	0.72	0.97	0.97	0.07
Age	41.03	34.54	33.64	3.20**	0.40	3.37***
Age at time of joining	34.37	31.90	33.64	1.24	0.77	0.33
Religion (%)
Muslim	0.97	0.96	1.00	0.10	1.34	1.27
Christian	0.03	0.02	0.00	0.50	0.94	1.27
Other	0.00	0.02	0.00	1.06	0.94	0.00
Marital status (%)
Married	0.75	0.75	0.70	0.11	0.63	0.54
Widowed	0.10	0.07	0.08	0.50	0.19	0.28
Divorced	0.06	0.04	0.08	0.71	1.01	0.34
Separated	0.00	0.04	0.00	1.50	1.34	0.00
Single	0.10	0.11	0.14	0.18	0.55	0.74
Educational attainment (%)
No education	0.17	0.09	0.20	1.40	1.67	0.34
Primary	0.40	0.56	0.20	1.80*	3.82***	2.25**
Ordinary level	0.17	0.14	0.32	0.51	2.22**	1.80*
Advanced level	0.25	0.21	0.28	0.56	0.84	0.31
Number of children	4.11	3.30	2.62	1.79*	1.49	3.36***
Number of children at time of joining	3.38	2.74	2.62	1.45	0.26	1.71*
Savings prior to joining VSLA? (%)	0.46	0.49	0.36	0.34	1.37	1.07
Access to loans prior to joining? (%)	0.03	0.12	0.08	1.90*	0.73	1.14

Notes: VSLA = Village Savings and Loan Association. The treatment group was divided into ‘Older’ members and ‘Recent’ members of a VSLA with the dividing line being the median number of years of membership. Means for these two groups and the control group of ‘New’ members were compared pairwise using t tests for non-proportions and a proportions test to compare proportions. The reported test statistics are t statistics for non-proportions and z statistics for proportions. Statistically significant results are indicated as follows: ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1.

Table 3. Economic, health, and educational outcomes of treatment and control groups.

	Treatment group	Control group	Test statistic
N	120	50
Number of IGAs	1.91	1.39	4.58***
2009 asset expenditure (TSh)	138 078	31 289	4.73***
Housing tenure (%)
Owned by household	0.86	0.60	3.67***
Shared	0.08	0.34	4.22***
Rented	0.01	0.00	0.64
Other	0.05	0.06	0.04
Improvements in last 12 months? (%)	0.67	0.16	6.08***
2009 education expenditure (TSh)	105 580	33 809	1.88*
Average number of meals per day	2.54	2.46	0.93
Average number of days consumed meat in last week	0.50	0.16	2.64***
Average number of days consumed fish in last week	4.61	1.20	10.38***
2009 health expenditures (TSh)	69 521	36 948	2.17**

Notes: IGA = income-generating activity. Means for the treatment and control groups were compared using t tests for non-proportions and a proportions test to compare proportions. The reported test statistics are thus t statistics for non-proportions and z statistics for proportions. Statistically significant results are indicated as follows: ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1.

Table 4. Economic outcomes.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
	Number of IGAs	2009 asset expenditure	Home ownership	Housing improvements
Membership	0.368* (0.205)	116 000*** (40 500)	1.000** (0.430)	1.582*** (0.509)
Marginal effect			0.301** (0.139)	0.552*** (0.130)
Gender	0.044 (0.086)	−21 200* (11 355)	0.389 (0.382)	−0.440 (0.421)
Marginal effect			0.107 (0.112)	−0.173 (0.161)
Membership*Gender	0.157 (0.237)	−29 100 (48 900)	0.008 (0.495)	0.096 (0.484)
Marginal effect			0.002 (0.128)	0.038 (0.193)
Membership + (Membership*Gender)	0.524*** (0.097)	87 200*** (26 700)	1.008*** (0.265)	1.678*** (0.301)
Marginal effect			0.304*** (0.082)	0.576*** (0.072)
Demographic controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Education controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Financial controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Constant	0.913*** (0.304)	−400 (55 500)	0.693 (0.787)	0.056 (0.576)
Observations	162	133	170	170
R-squared/pseudo-R-squared	0.211	0.274	0.130	0.224

Notes: IGA = income-generating activity. The table reports the results of regressions. The column labels indicate the dependent variable while rows indicate explanatory variables. See text for a complete description of the control variables. Columns (1) and (2) were estimated using ordinary least squares regression, while columns (3) and (4) report the results of probit regressions. Standard errors are in parentheses and are heteroskedasticity robust and clustered by Village Savings and Loan Association group (n = 25). Statistically significant results are indicated as follows: ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1.

Table 5. Education outcome.

	(1)	(2)
	2009 education expenditures	2009 education expenditures
Membership	−19 400 (41 000)	29 900** (14 300)
Gender	−42 100 (33 000)	−23 900 (36 400)
Membership*Gender	46 300 (54 600)	28 000 (64 100)
Membership + (Membership*Gender)	26 900 (20 600)	39 000** (16 800)
Demographic controls	Yes	Yes
Education controls	Yes	Non-parametric
Financial controls	Yes	Yes
Constant	−130 000 (95 800)	−118 000 (90 600)
Observations	164	160
R-squared	0.294	0.128

Notes: The table reports the results of regressions. The column labels indicate the dependent variable while rows indicate explanatory variables. See the text for a complete description of the control variables. All columns were estimated using ordinary least squares regression. Standard errors are in parentheses and are heteroskedasticity robust and clustered by Village Savings and Loan Association group (n = 25). Statistically significant results are indicated as follows: **p < 0.05.

Table 6. Health and nutrition outcomes.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
	Number of meals per day	Number of times had meat	Number of times had fish	2009 health expenditures
Membership	0.337** (0.151)	0.337 (0.311)	3.48*** (0.743)	28 000 (29 800)
Gender	0.348*** (0.111)	−0.209 (0.272)	−0.762 (0.765)	−23 500 (15 500)
Membership*Gender	−0.358** (0.149)	−0.0494 (0.355)	0.208 (0.814)	−7110 (33 700)
Membership + (Membership*Gender)	−0.020 (0.106)	0.287* (0.144)	3.69*** (0.341)	20 900* (11 900)
Demographic controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Education controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Financial controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Constant	2.04*** (0.226)	0.580 (0.396)	0.876 (0.867)	1440 (29 400)
Observations	170	168	168	160
R-squared	0.133	0.137	0.491	0.145

Notes: The table reports the results of regressions. The column labels indicate the dependent variable while rows indicate explanatory variables. See the text for a complete description of the control variables. All columns were estimated using ordinary least squares regression. Standard errors are in parentheses and are heteroskedasticity robust and clustered by Village Savings and Loan Association group (n = 25). Statistically significant results are indicated as follows: ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1.