No.227 Gender Income Gap Among Cambodian Farmers: The Effects of Formal Credit Usage

The purpose of this article is to analyze the determinants of the gender income gap among farmers in Cambodia, with a focus on the role of formal credit usage. To decompose the gender income gap, this article applies the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition technique to the data from the FinScope survey conducted at the end of 2015.

First, our findings show that the gender income gap is mainly explained by the gender gap in education levels and farm size. Second, the use of formal credit may contribute to the gender income gap although there is no difference in the level of formal credit usage between male and female farmers. Male farmers with formal credit usage are associated with 8 percentage points higher earnings than female farmers. Further research into the factors to explain why this correlation is higher for male farmers is therefore crucial.

Keywords: Gender income gap, formal credit usage, agriculture, Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition