Impact of Monthly Repayment System on the Household Income and Food Expenditure of the Rural Women Borrowers: Evidence from Bangladesh

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of the Monthly Repayment System (MRS) on the living standard of the poor women borrowers in terms of household income and food expenditure. Primary data were collected from the women borrowers of NGOs under the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh using the Simple Random Sampling (SRS) technique. In this study, the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method was used to assess the impact of MRS on the household income and food expenditure of the women borrowers. This study demonstrated that MRS played a significant role in improving the women borrowers' household income and food expenditure. ‘Five-Point Likert Scale’ was also used to assess the borrowers’ opinions on whether they were economically better off under the MRS or not. The majority of the borrowers had opinions that they preferred MRS for their economic betterment. This study suggests that MRS should be practiced among the women borrowers who received loans for pursuing agricultural activities.