Impact of Household Credit on Education and Healthcare Spending by the Poor in Peri-Urban Areas, Vietnam

There is an ongoing debate about whether microfinance has a positive impact on education and health for borrowing households in developing countries. To understand this debate, we use a survey designed to meet the conditions for propensity score matching (PSM) and examine the impact of household credit on education and healthcare spending by the poor in peri-urban areas of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In addition to matching statistically identical non-borrowers to borrowers, our estimates also control for household pre-treatment income and assets, which may be associated with unobservable factors affecting both credit participation and the outcomes of interest. The PSM estimates show a significant and positive impact of borrowing on education and healthcare spending. However, further investigation of the effects of the treatment reveals that only formal credit has a significant and positive impact on education and healthcare spending, while informal credit has an insignificant impact on spending. This paper contributes to the limited literature on peri-urban areas using evidence from one of the largest and most dynamic cities in Southeast Asia.