Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #106969

Alison Buttenheim, MBA, Department of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, 176 W Oak Park Dr, Claremont, CA 91711, 909 399 0816, abuttenheim@hotmail.com

Since its inception in Bangladesh thirty years ago, microfinance has been recognized as a powerful tool for alleviating poverty and improving health outcomes for the world's poorest communities, and particularly for women and children. Credit programs are often targeted at women and may include health education and women's empowerment along with financial services. Practitioners contend that credit programs may increase demand for health services by financing such services, through social influence, or by changing preferences for child health or family size based on economic development opportunities. While there is compelling evidence to support the positive effects of such programs on child health outcomes, the links from microfinance to contraceptive use are less clear-cut.

This study examines the relationship between microfinance programs and contraceptive use in Indonesia with data from multiple waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey. Community and individual fixed-effects regression models are used to control for nonrandom program placement and program participation selection bias. I evaluate three hypothesized mechanisms linking microfinance programs to contraceptive use: price effects, credit program incentives for contraception adopters, and reduced demand for children from increased economic opportunities realized through credit. I conclude that price effects are negligible in the Indonesian context, while incentives that condition credit availability on contraceptive use are significant in communities with low levels of socioeconomic development and limited alternative sources of credit. Microfinance programs do not appear to shift demand for children; rather, they increase a woman's ability to achieve her current fertility preferences.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, a participant will be able to

• Identify the ways in which microfinance programs can change demand for health services.
• Understand the interconnected dynamics of Indonesia's family planning and microfinance programs.
• Articulate the specific causal relationship between microfinance program participation and contraceptive use in Indonesia.

Keywords: Contraception, Developing Countries

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.