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Trust and ROSCA membership in rural Cameroon
Author(s) -
Etang Alvin,
Fielding David,
Knowles Stephen
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.1686
Subject(s) - element (criminal law) , key (lock) , business , political science , law , computer security , computer science
A key element of Rotating Saving and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) is the trust which members must place in each other, and which replaces formal financial contracts in places where financial transactions costs are high. However, there is very little evidence on the relationship between trust and ROSCA membership. We address this issue using new experimental data from rural Cameroon. We find large and statistically significant differences between trust among ROSCA members and trust among other people. However, the demographic characteristics associated with ROSCA membership are rather different from the ones that explain variations in the level of experimental trust. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.