Demand for Micro loans in Poland

In September 2001 CASE finished work on research project sponsored by the Micro Fund (Fundusz Mikro). The project entitled "THE DEMAND FOR MICRO LOANS IN POLAND" was carried out by a CASE research team including Ewa Balcerowicz (coordinator), Piotr Kozarzewski, Richard Woodward and Maciej Sobolewski, as well as Andrzej Bratkowski as a consultant, Józef Chmiel (from the Research Centre for Economic and Statistical Studies of the Central Statistical Office and the Polish Academy of Sciences)  and Maciej Gajewski (from the consulting company "UNICONSULT"). Katarzyna Wilary administered the project.

The purpose of this project was to evaluate demand for micro loans in Poland and to identify the factors that influence demand of small businesses for external financing. A major task was to investigate and describe the population of small businesses in Poland. Estimation of the relative importance of particular factors affecting their demand for micro loans allowed us to draw conclusions about how to better respond to that demand. In order to realize the research tasks the team applied the following methods:

• Analysis of Central Statistical Office (GUS) data on micro enterprises;
• A comparative analysis of the Micro Fund's services and other financial products available to small businesses in Poland;
• An analysis of the Micro Fund itself;
• A survey of the Micro Fund's past and present clients, and
• A survey of a representative sample of small private Polish businesses.

In autumn 2001 the research team prepared the final report and in the spring 2002 a book entitled: "Microenterprises: Economic Condition, Financing, Owners" based on the research results. In April 2002 the book was published by CASE within the series "Towards the Market" with a financial support of the Micro Fund