Profit-orientation and efficiency in microfinance industry: an application of stochastic frontier approach

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to ascertain the effect of the current wave of commercialization of microfinance institutions (MFIs) on their financial and social efficiency. We hypothesize that during the period of analysis, while the for-profit institutions achieve higher levels of financial efficiency, the non-profit MFIs achieve better social efficiency levels. In order to realize the underlined objective of this study, we use a sample of 162 MFIs gathered from Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX) market database, for the period 2007–2013 from 30 countries located in four regions Africa, MENA, Asia and Latin America. The analysis is based on a two-stage model. The first stage consists on classifying MFIs into two groups according to their main orientations (for-profit and non-profit). We design afterward two models to obtain both social and financial estimates for each particular type of MFIs, using the stochastic frontier analysis model. In the second stage, a regression analysis is carried out to determine which variables have an effect on financial and social efficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• Microfinance commercialization
• profit-orientation
• efficiency
• SFA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.