Is It Who You Are or What You Get? Comparing the Impacts of Loans and Grants for Microenterprise Development

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Crepon, Bruno; El Komi, Mohamed; Osman, Adam
• 署名单位: Institut Polytechnique de Paris; ENSAE Paris; Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB); American University Cairo; University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20210683
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 286-313
• 关键词: microfinance evidence; microcredit evidence; developing-countries; returns

摘要

Is the type of financial support provided to businesses more important than which businesses receive it? Loans and grants can lead to differences in optimal investments and in scope for moral hazard. We randomize 3,293 business loan applicants into receiving a loan, cash grant, in -kind grant, or nothing. All treatments equally increase income, yet there are large differences within a treatment group with impacts concentrated at the top of the distribution. Those who succeed with loans are observationally equivalent to those who succeed with grants, showcasing that owner heterogeneity is more important than the type of support received in microenterprise development. (JEL D22, D82, G32, H81, J16, M13, O16)