Abstract of

Master Thesis

Microfinance’s Impact on Education, Poverty, and Empowerment

A Case Study from the Bolivian Altiplano

Supervisor: Vibeke Andersson

Author: Sarah Gibb
October 1, 2007
Abstract
Research, in the form of 100 in-depth personal interviews was conducted in La Paz, Bolivia from
February through May 2007. This study explores the impact of microcredits on educational,
economical, and empowerment levels of women from the Bolivian high plains who had acquired
microcredits for over three years. An independent group of women who had never taken out a loan
for their business was used in this study as a control group.

The impacts associated with microcredits are complex, making it impossible to present an “all or
nothing” perspective of microcredits. My evidence shows that business investments and household
ownership of goods are positively affected by long-term microcredit participation. I also found that
the poor reported a higher accumulation of goods and improved more than 10/100 points on the
poverty scorecard indicator, suggesting that microcredits positively impact consumption. Another
positive indicator was that the loan group believed that their businesses had improved in the last few
years more than the interviewees in the control group.

Nonetheless, educational attainment levels were found to rise in Bolivia over the last few decades,
and this study did not find that microcredit usage positively impacted family educational levels.
Finally, a positive role of microcredits in the empowerment of women is questionable.