Abstract:
The main purpose of the study was to analyze the impact of cooperative membership on household asset formation in the case of Ejlej saving and credit cooperative in Amhara region, South Gondar Administrative zone; Tachgayint Wereda. Ejlej saving and credit cooperative (SACCO) was selected purposely due to its seniority, number of members and homogeneity of members (only government employee). Using quantitative research methods member and non-member sample households were selected through simple random sampling techniques. The total sample sizes of the data were 341 households. Among them, 165 were taken from saving and credit cooperative (SACCO) members and the rest 176 were non-members. The data were collected from both member and non-member households through administered structural questionnaire. The methods of data analysis were descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression model and propensity score matching (PSM). Binary Logistic regression model was used to predict the probability of sample households to join SACCO membership and use the same covariates to predict propensity score of both member and non-member households. As the finding show that age, distance from cooperative office, salary, work experience, and remittance were statically significant variables which determine the probability of households to join ‘Ejlej’ SACCO membership. After estimating the propensity score of sample households, matched them using kernel bwidth (0.1) matching method. Propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to estimate the impact of SACCO on household asset formation. The average treatment effect result shows that cooperative membership has a positive and statically significant effect on asset acquisition of member households. Being cooperative member, on average, asset formation of a household is increased by 67681.59 Birr. Saving and credit cooperative (SACCO) has significant effect on members asset formation so federal and local government give attention for SACCO to expand in all government sectors as well as increased their capital and number of members in order to make credit access for borrowers.