Determinants for successful loan credits for older people in Thailand

Abstract

Aging populations are gradually creating financial distress for governments, and Thailand is no exception. Effective policies for improving elderly welfare must be formulated since the population shift to older age is moving at a faster pace than economic growth. Older people prefer to live actively and independently in order to be less burdensome to their family members and are actively engaged in activities, either voluntarily or because of necessity, even after retirement age. The Thai government initiated a microcredit scheme for eligible older people in order to overcome the difficulty of gaining access to credit. The objective of this research is to explore and evaluate the effectiveness of the Older Persons Fund (OPF) organized by the Thai government to provide seed money for loans to promote active aging in Thailand. Data were collected nationwide using stratified sampling in urban and rural districts from members affiliated with the Older Persons Fund. Structured interviews were conducted with 578 loan recipients. The methodology includes inferential statistics and the multinomial logit choice probabilities model to determine the factors for successful active aging of the loan recipients. The results indicate that the purpose of the loan is a significant factor for a successful outcome. The results also imply that older people provide input into the economy and are not a burden on government expenditure in the long run by promoting active aging projects through microcredit schemes in Thailand.