Micro-Finances and Rural Poverty in Mexico: An Analysis Based on Propensity Score Matching

This article aims to estimate the effect of using the micro-finances on the poverty, measured as the income per Mexican rural household. By using the information from the Coneval Survey to Mexican Rural Households 2013 (EnChor 2013) as well as the techniques of Propensity Score Matching, the outcomes from this research show that micro-loans help to reduce the poverty levels among the rural households in Mexico. These findings indicate the need to create public policies that will enable to incorporate higher numbers of poor households into the micro-finance market, which would improve the standard of living of the people in those areas.