Public Good Provision in Indian Rural Areas : The Returns to Collective Action by Microfinance Groups

Casini, Paolo ; Vandewalle, Lore ; Wahhaj, Zaki

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: EMPOWERMENT;    LIMITED;    NGO;    HOLDING;    SOCIAL NORMS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7397
RP-ID  :  WPS7397

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Self-help groups (SHGs) are the mostcommon form of microfinance in India. The authors provideevidence that SHGs, composed of women only, undertakecollective actions for the provision of public goods withinvillage communities. Using a theoretical model, this papershows that an elected official, whose aim is to maximizere-election chances, exerts higher effort in providingpublic goods when private citizens undertake collectiveaction and coordinate their voluntary contributions towardsthe same goods. This effect occurs although government andprivate contributions are assumed to be substitutes in thetechnology of providing public goods. Using first-hand dataon SHGs in India, the paper tests the prediction of themodel and shows that, in response to collective action bySHGs, local authorities tackle a larger variety of publicissues, and are more likely to tackle issues of interest toSHGs. The findings highlight how the social behavior of SHGscan influence the governance of rural Indian communities.