81240 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database Does a Picture Paint a Thousand Words ? Evidence from a Microcredit Marketing Experiment Author(s) Xavier Gine, Ghazala Mansuri and Mario Picon Contact xgine@worldbank.org Country Pakistan Organizing Theme Voice and Agency, Economic Opportunities and Access to Assets Status Completed Intervention Category Microfinance, information intervention Sector Finance and Private Sector Development Female entrepreneurship is low in many developing economies partly because of constraints on women's time and mobility, which are often reinforced by social norms. This paper analyzes a marketing experiment designed to encourage women to adopt a new microcredit product. A brochure with the same content but two different covers was randomly distributed among male and female borrowing groups. One cover featured five businesses run by men, while the other showed identical businesses run by women. Men and women responded to psychological cues. Among men who were not business owners, Abstract had lower measured ability and whose wives were less educated, the responses to the female brochure were more negative, as did female business owners with low autonomy within the household. Women with relatively high levels of autonomy had a similar negative response to the male brochure, while there was no effect on female business owners with autonomy. Overall, these results suggest that women's response to psychological cues, such as positive role models, may be affected by their level of autonomy at home, and more intensive interventions may be required for more disadvantaged women. Gender Connection Gender Focused Intervention Gender Outcomes Gender disaggregated access to credit, psychological agency IE Design Random Encouragement Design The NRSP (National Rural Support Program) because a microfinance bank in 2010. The NRSP makes loans to Community Organizations, organizations created, supported, and financed by the NRSP. Some of the members of the CO were randomly assigned business training (which is the subject of a different Impact Evaluation). After the training, members from all CO's were invited to orientations that discussed the possibility of borrowing a larger loan amount. During the orientation meeting, members who were in good standing Intervention i.e., those who had successfully repaid at least one loan on time received one of two versions of a marketing brochure. Orientations occurred successfully in 596 COs. In the remaining 151 COs orientation meetings could not be held because the CO had either disbanded or was newly formed so that none of its members was eligible for the lottery. The brochure was identical in all respects except one. In one version, the entrepreneurs manning the business were male while in the other they were female. The brochure Last updated: 14 August 2013 1 enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database discussed how the COs could apply for a larger loan via a lottery. Lottery winners could borrow the approved amount, while those who lost the lottery could borrow up to their regular loan size. Of the 2,284 eligible CO members, 713 (31.2 percent) applied. NRSP approved 532 loans (74.6 percent). Most applicants had their loan amounts reduced. Of the customers approved, 254 were assigned to win the lottery (47.7 percent) and 211 ended up borrowing (83 percent). Among the 278 loan applicants that lost the lottery, only 161 borrowed (58 percent). Intervention Period February-May 2007 NRSP staff conducted a complete listing of the occupation of Community Organization (CO) members in the study branches to identify those who were engaged in a non-farm activity. After the listing, a baseline survey was conducted in November 2006 in a sample of 747 COs, selected so that their membership was between 5 and 26 members. The original Sample population sampling framework included all CO members that according to the listing exercise had a non-farm business and five other members selected at random from each CO. In practice, enumerators ended up interviewing everyone that attended a special CO meeting that was called to conduct the baseline survey. The resulting sample consisted of a total of 4,162 members interviewed, and 2,284 members (54.9%) that were in good standing. There is no control group. The study compares the behavior of microfinance clients who Comparison conditions receive two different forms of a brochure. Unit of analysis Community Organization Level The follow up survey was two years after the baseline survey and 6 months after the end of Evaluation Period the loan lottery. On average, about 31% of eligible CO's applied for a larger loan, this is somewhat larger for men. The female brochure reduces the probability of take-up by women entrepreneurs by 39% compared to the male brochure. Even for businesses of similar sizes, women receiving a female brochure reduces probability of applying for the loan. Women with low Results decision making power exhibit a negative impact from the female brochure. Female business owners with high decision making react negatively to the male brochure. Male business owners with low education and whose wives are poorly educated respond negatively to the female brochure. Primary study limitations DEC (Development Economics World Bank), Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, Funding Source Kaufmann Foundation. Gine, X., & Mansuri, G., Picon, M. (2011). Does a picture paint a thousand words? Reference(s) Evidence from a microcredit marketing experiment. The World Bank Economic Review, 25(3), 508-542. Link to Studies http://elibrary.worldbank.org.libproxy-wb.imf.org/content/article/1564-698x-25-3-508- 542 Microdata Last updated: 14 August 2013 2