Date of Award
8-2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Legacy Department
Applied Economics and Statistics
Committee Chair/Advisor
Bridges, William C
Committee Member
Kropp , Jaclyn D
Committee Member
Willis , David B
Abstract
The objectives of this thesis are to 1) estimate the overall distributions of household characteristics, 2) estimate the overall distributions of access to savings and credit products, and 3) determine the relationship between household characteristics and access to savings and credit products from various formal, semi-formal, and informal institution types. The goal of this thesis is to provide a direction for future linkage banking programs by finding which household characteristics should be targeted by this type of program. Panel data published by World Bank from the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) collected in 2005/06 and the Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS) in 2009/10 were used in the analysis. In this thesis the results of the questionnaire are used to estimate the overall distributions of household characteristics and access to savings and credit, and then chi-squared tests are used to find significant relationships between the household characteristics and access to financial products from a variety of formal, semi-formal, and informal institutions. The results show that there are significant differences in access to savings from formal institutions, credit unions, savings associations, microfinance institutions, savings and credit cooperative organizations, and informal savings groups by age, gender, marital status, and education of the household head; household size; rural or urban location of the household; type of shocks experienced by the household; type and value of assets; and main income source of the household. The results also show significant differences in access to credit from a bank, microfinance institution, credit union, savings and credit cooperative organization, informal savings group, employer, friends, and relatives by age, gender, and marital status of the household head; household size; rural or urban location of the household; type of shocks experienced by the household; asset value; and main source of household income. The results show that household characteristics have a significant effect on financial access in Uganda and suggest that rural households, households with less than six members, and those households whose heads are between the ages of 15-24, 65 or older, are female, not married, have little or no education, have lower asset value, or depend mainly on subsistence farming income are the households that are more financially excluded.
Recommended Citation
Oswald, Kathryn, "Utilization of Savings and Credit by Household Characteristics in Uganda and the Implications for Linkage Banking Programs" (2014). All Theses. 1887.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/1887