Can weak ties create social capital? Evidence from Self-Help Groups in rural India

Collective Action and Community Development: Evidence from Women’s Self-Help Groups in Rural India

In response to the problems of high coordination costs among the poor, efforts are underway in many countries to organize the poor through “self-help groups” (SHGs)–membership-based organizations that aim to promote social cohesion through a mixture of education, access to finance, and linkages to wider development programs. We randomly selected 32 of 80 villages in one of the poorest districts...

The effect of Self-Help Groups on access to maternal health services: evidence from rural India

INTRODUCTION The main challenge for achieving universal health coverage in India is ensuring effective coverage of poor and vulnerable communities in the face of high levels of income and gender inequity in access to health care. Drawing on the social capital generated through women's participation in community organizations like SHGs can influence health outcomes. To date, evidence about the i...

Economic and Social Impacts of Self-Help Groups in India

The Role of Self-Help Groups in Community Development Evidence from a Field Experiment in Rural India

This paper explores the impact of participation in self-help groups (SHGs) on the well-being of women and their communities. A randomized-control-trial framework is used to evaluate the impact of SHGs in 32 villages of Dungarpur district of Rajasthan. These results suggest that in the first two years of their operation, SHGs had direct and positive impacts on women’s savings, employment, partic...

Economic Ties: Evidence from Venture Capital Networks

The venture capital industry is characterized by strong inter-organizational networks that have been shown to affect VC firm performance and the competitive supply of capital for entrepreneurs. We examine how VC firms’ observable resources are related to tie formation, and thus how networks facilitate the distribution and combination of resources across organizations. Unlike the social networks...