Archiving and Documenting Health and Human Development Data Sets from "The Impact of Microfinance on Health: Experimental Evidence from India"

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Project Summary/Abstract In June 2017, the Harvard University and Duke University interdisciplinary research team entered the final year of a five-year R01 project funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute for Children's Health and Development (NICHD). This request is for funding through the NICHD's R03 mechanism to archive the survey and biometric data collected through this study and make it accessible so that it is available for future research analysis and for public sector use within India and other developing countries. The study in question, “The Impact of Microfinance on Health: Experimental Evidence from India” (NIH 5R01HD069546-05), is a multi-year investigation into the health and economic impacts of the expansion of non-banking financial services, primarily microfinance, throughout the state of Tamil Nadu, in Southern India. The magnitude of this unique dataset, collected from an innovative intervention in microfinance, represents a tremendous opportunity for research, and requires excellent documentation to facilitate the use of these rich data to maximize scientific findings. The archived data will enable analyses drawing both on the experimental design of the study as well as maximizing the use of it as an observational study. Thus, findings in Tamil Nadu may help many other states in India and other countries understand the link between types on lending in much of the developing world, especially in poor rural areas.