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Microfinance and Health

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Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health

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Abstract

Mutual help is inherent to human beings. Historically, people have participated in many types of collective assistance activities to increase their chances of survival and to better their lives. A rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) is a basic financial support activity that relies on such cooperation. Before the development of formal banking systems, ROSCAs existed ubiquitously, and they are still prevalent in many developing countries. More recently, microcredit has explosively spread around the globe, offering poor people a more formal financial option. A microcredit is a non-collateral, group-based small loan that is usually provided by a government or by non-governmental organizations. How do these formal and informal “microfinance” activities work as community social capital? What is the available empirical evidence on the association between microfinance and health? In this chapter, we review, through a social capital perspective, the theoretical, historical, and empirical evidence on microfinance and health.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The side payment is also required in some random ROSCAs, and its amount largely varies.

  2. 2.

    Personal communication with a local woman in Miyagino-ku, Sendai-shi, of the Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.

  3. 3.

    Ito uses the terms “horizontal versus vertical” rather than “bonding versus bridging” in her paper. In this chapter, we do not provide a deep discussion of the definitions of these “components” of social capital, as such a discussion is beyond the focus of this chapter. Readers interested in it may refer to Ito (2003).

  4. 4.

    See Kawachi et al. (2008) for more information on the theoretical backgrounds of social capital.

  5. 5.

    The authors also provide evidence that some positive statuses, such as happiness and a good diet, may also spread in the network.

  6. 6.

    According to the authors’ personal communication with Mr. Watanabe.

  7. 7.

    A detailed description and an economic analysis of the premodern history of Japanese mujin in English are available in Dekle and Hamada (2000).

  8. 8.

    In the Okinawa-AGES study, moai was determined as a bridging type if it was a high diversity in terms of socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds of its members.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health and Social Behavior, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Naoki Kondo M.D., Ph.D.

  2. Department of Human Sciences, School of Law and Letters, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara-cho, Okinawa, 903-0219, Japan

    Kokoro Shirai Ph.D.

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  1. Naoki Kondo M.D., Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Naoki Kondo M.D., Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Social & Behavioral Sciences, Harvard University, Huntington Ave. 677, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Ichiro Kawachi

  2. , Department of Epidemiology, Okayama University Graduate School of Me, Shikata-cho 2-5-1, Okayama City, 700-8558, Japan

    Soshi Takao

  3. Dept Social & Behavioral Sciences, Harvard University, Huntington Ave. 677, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    S.V. Subramanian

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Kondo, N., Shirai, K. (2013). Microfinance and Health. In: Kawachi, I., Takao, S., Subramanian, S. (eds) Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7464-7_10

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