ABSTRACT
Information was also collected regarding the group-level characteristics connected to the group’s functioning. Such characteristics include both group-level design features (group’s duration, membership stability, meeting’s frequency, representatives’ and members’ attendance and participation, presence of joint liability), and group members’ characteristics (homogeneity across members of income, gender, religion, ethnicity, type of production). Together with trust indicators, these served to address issues such as the relationship between in-group bonding versus bridging with outsiders, and homogeneity versus heterogeneity as factors of group’s success (Portes and Landoldt, 1996; Grootaert, 1998; World Bank, 2000).
