Microcredit and financial literacy dominate the evidence on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) finance, while emerging areas like fintech remain underexplored.
1.1 What Is This Map About?
This evidence and gap map (EGM) is about various financial sector interventions that help improve access to finance for MSMEs. The map is comprised of five financial intervention categories: (i) strategy, legislation, and regulation; (ii) systems and institutions; (iii) facilitating access; (iv) lending instruments/financial products; and (v) demand-side interventions. These interventions are described against four outcomes of interest: policy and regulatory environment, financial inclusion, enterprise performance, and welfare outcomes.
1.2 What Studies Are Included in This Map?
To be included in the map, the studies should be intervention studies, meaning there must be a specific program or intervention being offered or provided to different firm types. Only quantitative study designs are eligible, also accounting that there is a comparison group, or matched comparisons used in the empirical approach. The most recent search was conducted in June 2022, which added new studies to the map.
The map includes 413 studies, of which 34 are systematic reviews.
1.3 What Are the Findings From the Map?
The evidence is heavily dominated by two interventions, in particular microcredit and financial literacy or education programs, with 69 and 66 studies, respectively. Microfinance institutions often serve as the delivery channel for these interventions rather than being standalone interventions themselves.
Microcredit is often supplied for purposes other than enterprise development. Other financial inclusion interventions, such as health insurance, have health as their primary focus, rather than direct support for MSMEs.
Very few studies have been found on interventions providing equity, interest-free bank accounts, and trade credit, while no evidence was found for digital literacy interventions.
The most studied outcomes of interest are economic outcomes, sales/revenue, profits, and exports as indicators of firm performance, as well as outcomes relating to access to financial services, as they all have more than 100 studies. Rare evidence exists on outcomes relating to policy and regulatory environment.
Overall, interventions for improving access to finance for MSMEs are quite numerous, though there is an imbalance in terms of specific interventions being examined. There are emerging and interesting topics, such as facilitating access interventions, which include financial technology that can be explored in the future.
1.4 What Do the Findings of This Map Mean?
The map is a significant material for the upcoming review on financial literacy interventions, which the team has also completed. This map also determines project directions and operational agenda to determine program priorities by identifying the evidence that exists and gaps that can be explored further. While the map does not directly assess the effectiveness of interventions, it provides a reliable source of relevant studies and systematic reviews. This can support more targeted and informed research aims going forward.