Abstract

The study was conducted in Ben Tre’s three coastal districts, namely Binh Dai, Ba Tri and Thanh Phu, with the aim to identify the structure and quality of social capital as well as its impact on the access to formal credits of 172 shrimp households. Using descriptive statistics, Logistic regression and multivariate regression, the results show that official social networks (i.e. associations and organizations), informal social networks (farming management, credit officers, family - . friends – colleagues), age, experience, number of years living in the locality and education level are determinants of the access to formal credits and credit amounts. In addition, the study also proposed a number of measures to expand the social capital and enhance the accessibility to formal credits of shrimp households.