The gender of debt and credit: Insights from rural Tamil Nadu

The champions of financial inclusion regret women's lack access to credit, while critics financialization, by contrast, claim that women have become overly indebted. But little is actually known about debt/credit in quantitative terms, mostly due a data. This descriptive paper uses first-hand survey data from southern India disaggregated sex order analyze the gender debt and its interplay with caste poverty, based on statistics econometric results. We show are heavily indebted, first foremost informal sources, alongside microcredit. While men much higher earners, they borrow less relative terms. Furthermore, prominently – markedly more so than make ends meet; productive investment largely remains male practice. Lastly, poorest lowest-caste households heaviest borrowing responsibilities, managing highest proportions household debt. On theoretical level, these results highlight gendered earmarking credit: female debts/credits do not same meanings uses. They also confirm dimension behavior, as behavior constrained family affiliation, poverty level caste, all which affects less. Last, terms policy implications, put into question specific targeting microcredit policies, likely strengthen association between for women, particular exacerbate responsibilities scarcity.