Purpose

Digital credit is spreading rapidly across Sub-Saharan Africa and holds potential for financial inclusion and female financial autonomy. Women in developing economies have long been targeted by microfinance institutions due to the women’s reliability and positive spillover effects. Yet, adoption rates for digital financial innovations remain moderate among rural women in Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors explore whether female preferences for digital and conventional credit differ from males.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conduct a Discrete Choice Experiment with 420 smallholder farmers in central Madagascar, one of the region's poorest countries, to assess preferences for selected digital and conventional credit attributes.

Findings

Results of the mixed logit model and the comparison of the willingness-to-pay via Poe-test suggest high general demand for both credit forms. The demand of female respondents is higher than that of males, suggesting that they might be underserved. This holds for both credit forms. However, differences in willingness to pay for the credit attributes are mostly not statistically significant, indicating that designing gender-specific services may not be advisable.

Originality/value

This article is believed to be the first to assess and compare gendered willingness to pay for digital and conventional credit. The study’s findings give valuable insights to decision-makers in development politics as well as the fintech industry.

中文翻译：

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女性小农对数字和传统信贷属性的偏好：来自马达加斯加的证据

目的

数字信贷正在撒哈拉以南非洲地区迅速传播，并具有金融包容性和女性财务自主权的潜力。由于妇女的可靠性和积极的溢出效应，发展中经济体的妇女长期以来一直是小额信贷机构的目标。然而，撒哈拉以南非洲农村妇女对数字金融创新的采用率仍然较低。作者探讨了女性对数字和传统信贷的偏好是否与男性不同。

设计/方法论/途径

作者在马达加斯加中部（该地区最贫穷的国家之一）对 420 个小农进行了一项离散选择实验，以评估对选定数字和传统信用属性的偏好。

发现

混合 Logit 模型的结果以及通过 Poe 检验进行的支付意愿比较表明，对两种信贷形式的总体需求较高。女性受访者的需求高于男性，表明她们可能得不到充分的服务。这对于两种信用形式都适用。然而，信用属性的支付意愿差异在统计上大多不显着，这表明设计针对特定性别的服务可能并不可取。

原创性/价值

本文被认为是第一篇评估和比较性别支付数字和传统信贷意愿的文章。该研究的结果为发展政治和金融科技行业的决策者提供了宝贵的见解。