Robert Lensink
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 1111156 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Robert Lensink |
| PRENOMES | Robert |
| SOBRENOME | Lensink |
| ASSINATURA | LENSINK R |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Groningen |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6448-5164 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 51 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 436 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 51 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1991 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 7 |
Women’s empowerment and nutritional status of children
Objectives: This study examines aspects of women’s empowerment related to the nutritional status of under-five children in Bangladesh, including their age-appropriate food intake and access to healthcare during acute respiratory tract infection (ARI). Design: Three waves of the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (BDHS) data (2011, 2014 and 2017–2018) were pulled and utilised to construct three domains of the Survey-Based Women’s Empowerment Ind…
Is Microcredit Effective? It Depends on the Context
The impact of bundling index insurance with credit and input vouchers
This study assesses the uptake and impact of bundling index insurance with credit and input vouchers through a randomized control trial experiment. Smallholder farmers in Ethiopia are randomly assigned to a control group and three treatment arms, namely: (1) stand-alone index insurance with upfront premium payment, (2) stand-alone index insurance with delayed premium payment, (3) bundled index insurance with credit and delayed premium payment, or…
Effectiveness of community-based diabetes and hypertension prevention and management programmes in Indonesia and Viet Nam
Introduction Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have surpassed infectious diseases as the leading global cause of death, with the Southeast Asian region experiencing a significant rise in NCD prevalence over the past decades. Despite the escalating burden, screening for NCDs remains at very low levels, resulting in undetected cases, premature mortality and high public healthcare costs. We investigate whether community-based NCD prevention and manag…
Culturally adapted training for community volunteers to improve their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding non-communicable diseases in Vietnam
Culturally adapted trainings can improve knowledge among community health volunteers which is important for the support of primary healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. Using a digital screening application can be a barrier for the improvement of knowledge, attitude and practice and we suggest using an intergenerational or age-friendly approach, with the supervision of primary healthcare professionals. Future research on behavioral chan…
How did Covid affect savings and wealth? An empirical study in South Africa
By using a unique dataset of more than 20,000 individuals with savings accounts from August 2019 to October 2020 in South Africa, this paper examines how the COVID crisis has affected savings behavior, and by affecting savings, impacted wealth inequality. We find that while COVID increased savings on average, the increase in average savings is due to a small group of higher income savers which substantially increased their savings, while a large …
The implementation of community-based programs in Vietnam is promising in promoting health
Background Low-and middle-income countries mostly have ageing populations with many unmet economic, social, or health-related needs, Vietnam being an example. Community-based support in Vietnam, organized as Intergenerational Self-Help Clubs (ISHCs) based on the Older People Associations (OPA) model, can help to meet these needs by the provision of services for various aspects of life. This study aims to assess the implementation of the ISHCs and…
Uptake, use, and impact of Islamic savings
We implement a randomized field experiment in Pakistan to evaluate three interventions designed to encourage poor Muslim women to open and use Islamic savings accounts. First, an intervention that increases religious salience by using a religious speech that highlights the purposes, benefits, and desirability of savings and dispels the misconception that all formal saving is impermissible in Islam, mainly by quoting directly from the Quran; in co…
The Origins of Optimism
People often underestimate the time it takes to complete a task. We investigate the causes of such overoptimism through a lab-in-the-field experiment with microfinance clients in Bolivia testing the contribution of uncertainty, personality, and financial incentives. Our results are consistent with theories of time-inconsistent beliefs postulating the existence of anticipatory benefits, where the incentives at stake shape optimism. Correlational e…
The Plus in Credit-Plus-Technical Assistance
Microfinance institutions traditionally focus on the provision of credit and other financial services. In light of recent evidence on the scant transformative effects of ‘standard’ microcredit models, however, some lenders are increasing efforts to offer additional non-financial services–such as business trainings and technical assistance. While literature on the effects of business trainings is quite voluminous, far less attention has been paid …
The role of social capital in adoption of risky versus less risky subsidized input supplies
This study evaluates the effect of social capital on farmers’ adoption of subsidized seedlings and fertilizer for cocoa farmers in Ghana. We distinguish three types of social capital: network social capital, relationship social capital, and community social capital. Network social capital refers to the peer-to-peer information flow about product benefits reaching farmers, therefore closing the information asymmetry that prevents farmers from soci…
Aspirational hope, dairy farming practices, and milk production
Development economics has increasingly studied the role of diminished aspirations and other internal constraints that may form poverty traps. We present results from a controlled experiment to develop aspirational hope among 531 dairy farmers in Bolivia. Subjects in the treatment group participated in three coaching sessions that involved watching an inspiring documentary and participating in group workshops designed to augment aspirations relate…
Political connections and household access to bank loans
Using data from a large household survey among 8,438 households in China in 2011, we analyse whether the fact that a household head is a member of a political party in China increases the probability that the household has access to a bank loan. We investigate how these connections influence the decision of households to apply for a bank loan (i.e., the demand side) and the decision of the bank to approve the loan (i.e., the supply side). We show…
Does microcredit increase aspirational hope? Evidence from a group lending scheme in Sierra Leone
The double bottom line of microfinance
Conventional microfinance institutions (MFIs) can promote financial inclusion, but they also prompt ethical concerns regarding the social consequences of commercialization and high interest rates. Islamic MFIs, which adhere to Sharia’s prohibition of riba (usually interpreted as a ban on interest), present an alternative. Differences between conventional and Islamic MFIs in terms of outreach and financial sustainability remain underexplored; no c…
Transforming agribusiness in developing countries
Transformation of agribusiness is critical in light of the Agenda for Sustainable Development. FinTech and the integration of FinTech with other (green) technologies as well as with digitized agriculture plays an important role when it comes to, for example, SDG 12, specifically, responsible production, as it can mitigate trade-offs and enhance synergies between environmental and social SDGs, for example, 1 and 15, increasing profitability withou…
The impact of husbands' involvement in goal‐setting training on women's empowerment
Offering women access to microcredit and business training is a prominent approach to stimulate women's empowerment. Whereas men seem to profit from business training, women do not. We adjusted a goal‐setting training session on the basis of women's needs in collaboration with a women organization in Sri Lanka. We invited female microfinance borrowers and their husbands to the training as both parties should be involved to change existing gender …
Impacts of the Gender and Entrepreneurship Together Ahead (GET Ahead) training on empowerment of female microfinance borrowers in Northern Vietnam
Randomized interventions and “real” treatment effects
Liquidity constraints, informal institutions, and the adoption of weather insurance
A Three-Dimensional Model of Women’s Empowerment
Women's empowerment is an important goal in achieving sustainable development worldwide. Offering access to microfinance services to women is one way to increase women's empowerment. However, empirical evidence provides mixed results with respect to its effectiveness. We reviewed previous research on the impact of microfinance services on different aspects of women's empowerment. We propose a Three-Dimensional Model of Women's Empowerment to inte…
Liquidity Constraints and Willingness to Pay for Solar Lamps and Water Filters in Jakarta
Financial Literacy and Financial Behaviour
We organise a field experiment with smallholder farmers in Rwanda to measure the impact of financial literacy training on financial knowledge and behaviour. The training increased financial literacy of participants, changed their savings and borrowing behaviour and had a positive effect on the new business start-up. However, it failed to have a significant (short-term) impact on income. Using a two-stage regression framework, we identify enhanced…
Loan Officers’ Gender and Microfinance Repayment Rates
This study examines the impact of loan officer characteristics on repayment rates of microfinance borrowers in Mexico applying multilevel analyses, with special attention to the impact of the gender of the loan officer on default rates. The results strongly suggest that loan officers play a crucial role in improving repayment rates in microfinance and that male loan officers are better able to induce borrowers to repay than female loan officers. …
Cash or In-kind Transfers? Evidence from a Randomised Controlled Trial in Delhi, India
This article examines a randomised intervention in Delhi, India, that provided unconditional cash transfers to a group of households as a replacement for the food security offered by a below-poverty-level card. The experimental approach can differentiate beneficial effects due to either unconditional cash transfers or newly opened bank accounts. The unconditional cash transfer does not induce a decline in food security; rather, it provides opport…
Violent Conflict and Behavior
We use a series of field experiments in rural Burundi to examine the impact of exposure to conflict on social, risk, and time preferences. We find that conflict affects behavior: individuals exposed to violence display more altruistic behavior towards their neighbors, are more risk-seeking, and have higher discount rates. Large adverse shocks can thus alter savings and investments decisions, and potentially have long-run consequences-even if the …
The Empirics of Microfinance
Microfinance has received a lot of attention recently, both from policy makers as well as in academic circles. Two of the main topics that have been hotly debated are explaining joint liability group lending and its implications for reducing information asymmetries, and the trade-off between the financial sustainability and outreach of microfinance programmes. This Feature contains three novel empirical contributions providing new insights with r…
Microfinance
Financial Literacy and Financial Behaviour
We organise a field experiment with smallholder farmers in Rwanda to measure the impact of financial literacy training on financial knowledge and behaviour. The training increased financial literacy of participants, changed their savings and borrowing behaviour and had a positive effect on the new business start-up. However, it failed to have a significant (short-term) impact on income. Using a two-stage regression framework, we identify enhanced…
Outreach and Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions
Joint Liability Lending and the Peer Selection Effect
We show that the joint liability lending contracts derived in Ghatak (2000) violate an "ex post" incentive-compatibility constraint which says that the amount of joint liability cannot exceed the amount of individual liability. We derive and characterise optimal separating joint liability contracts incorporating this constraint. Copyright 2005 Royal Economic Society
Liquidity constraints, informal institutions, and the adoption of weather insurance
Impacts of the Gender and Entrepreneurship Together Ahead (GET Ahead) training on empowerment of female microfinance borrowers in Northern Vietnam
Peer Monitoring, Social Ties and Moral Hazard in Group Lending Programs
The role of social capital in adoption of risky versus less risky subsidized input supplies
This study evaluates the effect of social capital on farmers’ adoption of subsidized seedlings and fertilizer for cocoa farmers in Ghana. We distinguish three types of social capital: network social capital, relationship social capital, and community social capital. Network social capital refers to the peer-to-peer information flow about product benefits reaching farmers, therefore closing the information asymmetry that prevents farmers from soci…
The effect of financial liberalization on capital flight in African economies
The Institutional Economics of Foreign Aid
Does microcredit increase aspirational hope? Evidence from a group lending scheme in Sierra Leone
What Can We Learn from Impact Evaluations
Slavery, Statehood, and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Aspirational hope, dairy farming practices, and milk production
Development economics has increasingly studied the role of diminished aspirations and other internal constraints that may form poverty traps. We present results from a controlled experiment to develop aspirational hope among 531 dairy farmers in Bolivia. Subjects in the treatment group participated in three coaching sessions that involved watching an inspiring documentary and participating in group workshops designed to augment aspirations relate…
Randomized interventions and “real” treatment effects
Does the revival of international private capital flows mean the end of aid
Official finance requirements in the 1990s
Transforming agribusiness in developing countries
Transformation of agribusiness is critical in light of the Agenda for Sustainable Development. FinTech and the integration of FinTech with other (green) technologies as well as with digitized agriculture plays an important role when it comes to, for example, SDG 12, specifically, responsible production, as it can mitigate trade-offs and enhance synergies between environmental and social SDGs, for example, 1 and 15, increasing profitability withou…
The impact of husbands' involvement in goal‐setting training on women's empowerment
Offering women access to microcredit and business training is a prominent approach to stimulate women's empowerment. Whereas men seem to profit from business training, women do not. We adjusted a goal‐setting training session on the basis of women's needs in collaboration with a women organization in Sri Lanka. We invited female microfinance borrowers and their husbands to the training as both parties should be involved to change existing gender …
Liquidity Constraints and Willingness to Pay for Solar Lamps and Water Filters in Jakarta
Decompartmentalization
The determinants of developing countries’ access to the international capital market
The traditional analysis of Western credit relations with Developing Countries mainly focuses on the possibilities of debtor countries’ meeting their debt obligations and tries to find factors behind possible default. The present study explicitly considers flows of funds between creditors and debtors and investigates the determinants of developing countries’ access to the international capital market. A combination of GDP per capita, net‐debt‐to‐…
Official finance requirements in the 1990s
Decompartmentalization
Structural Adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa
Banking reform and the financing of firm investment
This article investigates whether the Chilean banking reforms of the 1980s have contributed to reducing market imperfections in Chilean financial markets in the late 1980 and early 1990s. To analyse this issue, patterns of investment and its finance for different types of firms are studied, based on balance sheet information of a panel of 70 firms. The most important conclusion is that those specific reforms, aimed at reducing intra‐conglomerate …
Does the revival of international private capital flows mean the end of aid
The effect of financial liberalization on capital flight in African economies
Aid instability as a measure of uncertainty and the positive impact of aid on growth
This article contributes to the literature on aid and economic growth. We posit that uncertainty, measured as the instability of aid receipts, will influence the relationship between aid and investment, how recipient governments respond to aid, and will capture the fact that some countries are especially vulnerable to shocks. When we account for uncertainty (which is negative and significant), we find that aid has a significant positive effect on…
Changing the Conditions for Development Aid
The publication of the Assessing Aid report of the World Bank in 1998 has stimulated the debate on the future of development aid and aid policies. This collection contains a number of studies that aim to contribute to this debate. In this introduction we put the discussion on the future of development aid into perspective and summarise the main findings of the other contributions in this collection. We focus on two issues: the aid effectiveness d…
Are There Negative Returns to Aid
The World Bank report Assessing Aid assumes that aid is more effective when it is given to countries where polices are sound. Moreover, it assumes that an inflow of aid, above a certain level, starts to have negative effects. In this paper we empirically test both assumptions. We do not find evidence for the fact that aid becomes more effective when it is given to countries with good policies. On the other hand, we find some evidence for negative…
Business groups, financing constraints and investment
We examine the effect of business group affiliation on corporate investment behaviour in India. More specifically, we test whether group affiliation reduces financing constraints for the affiliated firms. We use a data set containing 694 listed Indian companies for the 1989-97 period. We estimate a simple investment equation and find evidence that the investment-cash flow sensitivity is much lower for group affiliates. This suggests that business…
Foreign direct investment, financial development and economic growth
This article argues that the development of the financial system of the recipient country is an important precondition for FDI to have a positive impact on economic growth. A more developed financial system positively contributes to the process of technological diffusion associated with FDI. The article empirically investigates the role the development of the financial system plays in enhancing the positive relationship between FDI and economic g…
Infant and child mortality in developing countries
Is development best achieved by going for growth, or does specific attention need to be paid to directly improving human welfare? In contrast to the Human Development Reports of the UNDP, the World Bank has stressed the growth approach. Recent work has reinforced this position by arguing that health spending is extremely ineffective in reducing infant or child mortality, which is mainly explained by a country's income per capita. This article con…
The Institutional Economics of Foreign Aid
Peer Monitoring, Social Ties and Moral Hazard in Group Lending Programs
Joint Liability Lending and the Peer Selection Effect
We show that the joint liability lending contracts derived in Ghatak (2000) violate an "ex post" incentive-compatibility constraint which says that the amount of joint liability cannot exceed the amount of individual liability. We derive and characterise optimal separating joint liability contracts incorporating this constraint. Copyright 2005 Royal Economic Society
The Empirics of Microfinance
Microfinance has received a lot of attention recently, both from policy makers as well as in academic circles. Two of the main topics that have been hotly debated are explaining joint liability group lending and its implications for reducing information asymmetries, and the trade-off between the financial sustainability and outreach of microfinance programmes. This Feature contains three novel empirical contributions providing new insights with r…
Does Group Affiliation Improve Firm Performance? The Case of Chinese State-Owned Firms
This paper analyses the performance of state-owned business groups in China. Group affiliation can be important for economic policy evaluation since the Chinese government promotes the formation of business groups as a first step in the process of reforming state enterprises into modern corporations. The analysis applies a range of econometric techniques to a sample of 657 Chinese state-owned firms in 2005 and shows that group affiliation has a r…
The Credit Constraints of Market-Oriented Farmers in Chile
Using data from two surveys conducted in 2006 and 2008 with 177 farmers, this article determines whether market-oriented farmers in central Chile are credit constrained, and it identifies the main factors that influence formal credit provision. In so doing, this study explicitly tests whether social capital variables play a role in determining credit constraints. That is, the authors explore the determinants of classifications into four categorie…
Group lending and the role of the group leader
This paper investigates strategic monitoring behavior within group lending. We show that monitoring efforts of group members differ in equilibrium due to the asymmetry between members in terms of future profits. In particular, we show that the entrepreneur with the highest future profits also puts in the highest monitoring effort. Moreover, monitoring efforts differ between group members due to free-riding: one member reduces her level of monitor…
Outreach and Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions
Microfinance
The Impact of Trade Credit on Customer Switching Behaviour
We use primary survey data to analyse the relationship between trade credit and customer switching in the context of trade transactions between wholesalers and retailers in the Tanzanian rice market. Results reveal a negative relation of trade credit and customer switching, that is, trade credit acts as a switching barrier; retailers are reluctant to move to another supplier if they depend on trade credit as a source of external finance. This int…
Violent Conflict and Behavior
We use a series of field experiments in rural Burundi to examine the impact of exposure to conflict on social, risk, and time preferences. We find that conflict affects behavior: individuals exposed to violence display more altruistic behavior towards their neighbors, are more risk-seeking, and have higher discount rates. Large adverse shocks can thus alter savings and investments decisions, and potentially have long-run consequences-even if the …
What Can We Learn from Impact Evaluations
Economics (43 obras) · Business (28 obras) · Economic growth (24 obras) · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion (24 obras) · Finance (22 obras) · Political science (18 obras) · Finance (13 obras) · Microfinance (13 obras) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (11 obras) · Financial system (10 obras)