| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立屏東科技大學 === 熱帶農業暨國際合作系 === 105 === At least one third of the world’s population lives under poverty level. Microfinance is seen as a tool to help reduce poverty in the world. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) were originally conceived as non-governmental organizations, whose main objective were to serve those people in financial needs and whom would not have access to loans from the traditional banking system. This study aims to compute technical efficiency of MFIs operating in Latin America and The Caribbean, using both, the production approach (PA) and the intermediation approach (IA). The study sample is 118 MFIs extracted from the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX-Market), which according to the performance indicators are grouped by: (1) region; (2) by antiquity; (3) by size of assets (4) by regulatory; and (5) by legal status. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) input oriented model was used to compute efficiency levels, under both constant return to scale (CRS) and variable return to scale (VRS). The findings of the study indicate higher average technical efficiency score for IA and score for PA. The average technical efficiency score under CRS is 0.884 and 0.250 for IA and PA, respectively; and under VRS, 0.895 and 0.292 for IA and PA, respectively. The results are similar to other studies in where the average efficiency score is higher for IA than for PA. In terms of antiquity, the study concludes that for PA, Young and New MFIs are the most efficient under CRS; however, under VRS, Mature and Very-Mature are the most efficient. In addition; for IA, Vey-Mature and Mature MFIs present the highest scores under CRS and Very-Mature and New under VRS. The results by legal status show that NBFI MFIs were the best performers in PA under CRS and VRS. Alternatively, for IA, Credit Union/Cooperatives and Bank MFIs have the highest technical efficiency. The study suggests Credit Union/Cooperatives and NFBI MFIs may be promoted in developing regions as these MFIs are found to be the most overall efficient.
|
|---|
