The effects of services by microfinance institutions on the welfare of urban households in Malaysia

Abstract

The primary aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of financial (microcredit and microinsurance) and nonfinancial services (training), services by microfinance on the welfare of their urban clients in Malaysia. We contribute to the existing literature by using income as a mediating variable in the analysis. Questionnaires were distributed to 400 respondents across three different urban areas in Malaysia in order to collect the relevant data for this study. We have adopted the quota sampling to collect the data. The results show that most of the services provided by the microfinance institutions including microcredit, micro insurance and training have assisted the urban households to earn more income and enhance their socio-economic welfare. The recommendations arising from the results of this study are: 1) an environment that promotes cooperation between microfinance institutions and households should be enhanced and 2) well-diversified and dynamic microfinance programs and specific skills-building training programs should be created.