author: Al-Mamun, A., Wahab, S. A., Mazumder, M. N. H., & Su, Z. year: 2014 title: Empirical Investigation on the Impact of Microcredit on Women Empowerment in Urban Peninsular Malaysia publisher: Journal of Developing Areas uri: https://doi.org/10.1353/jda.2014.0030 pubtype: article discipline: development country: Malaysia period: 2011 maxlength: 2 targeting: implicit group: women data: structured face-to-face interviews design: quasi-experimental method: cross-sectional stratified random sampling sample: 242 unit: individual representativeness: subnational, urban causal: 1 # 0 correlation / 1 causal theory: household economic portfolio model (Chen & Dunn, 1996) limitations: can not establish full experimental design observation: - intervention: microcredit; training institutional: 0 structural: 0 agency: 1 inequality: gender; income type: 0 # 0 vertical / 1 horizontal indicator: 1 # 0 absolute / 1 relative measures: savings; decision-making findings: increase in household decision-making; increase in economic security; constrained by inability for individuals to obtain loans channels: individual access to finance; collective agency increase through meetings and training direction: 1 # -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos significance: 1 # 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg notes: annotation: | A study on the impacts of an urban micro-finance programme in Malaysia on the economic empowerment of women. The programme introduced the ability for low-income urban individuals to receive collateral-free credit. The study finds that the programme, though not specifically aimed at women, indeed increased women's economic empowerment with an increase in household decision-making, as well as increased personal economic security. Primarily this is due to the increased access to finance, though it also functions thorugh an increase of collective agency established for the women in organised meetings and trainings. It also finds, however, that the empowerment outcomes are constrained by the inability for individuals to obtain loans, with the programme only disbursing group loans which are harder to achieve through obstacles to collective organisation by different racial and socio-demographic backgrounds in each dwelling. The study is somewhat limited in its explanatory power since even through its random sampling design it can not establish control for all factors required in experimental design.