Microfinance and public policy : outreach, performance and efficiency / edited by Bernd Balkenhol.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Balkenhol, Bernd.

International Labour Organization.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Microfinance.

Microfinance--Developing countries--Case studies.

Poverty--Developing countries--Case studies.

Poverty.

Small business--Developing countries--Finance--Case studies.

Small business.

Finance.

Developing countries.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 263 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Summary:

This book invites aid agencies and governments to consider efficiency as a robust and reliable criterion to guide their decisions on continuing or discontinuing support for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Efficiency helps discriminate between support-worthy and underperforming MFIs with greater accuracy than financial performance alone, irrespective of the overall orientation of MFIs. Some MFIs reach many poor people with on average small transactions, others are more commercially oriented and seek strong financial performance in the shortest term possible. Both kinds of MFI are support-worthy as long as they are on or near the efficiency frontier or moving towards it, for a given production function and in a given operating environment.

This study presents the findings of a survey of 45 MFIs operating in 21 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Middle East and North Africa. The research and analysis was carried out in the framework of a joint project of the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN), involving the Institute of Development Studies (IUED), the International Labour Office (ILO), University of Cambridge and the University of Geneva, with the ILO acting as coordinating agency. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Efficiency and sustainability in microfinance / Bernd Balkenhol

Promise and achievements

Efficiency in the microfinance literature

Efficiency: The concept

Applicability of efficiency concepts in microfinance

Efficiency versus financial sustainability

Structure of the book

Conceptual framework

Poverty versus inequality / Amadou Diop, Isabelle Hillenkamp and Jean-Michel Servet

Introduction

Defining and measuring poverty

How microfinance can help reduce poverty

Poverty reduction and financial performance

Can microfinance reach the poor?

The harmful side-effects: Increased disparities

Poverty reduction through microfinance: a capability perspective / Flavio Comim

Who are the poor? What are the issues?

Positive mechanisms

Negative mechanisms

A capability perspective

Achieving poverty outreach, impact and sustainability: managing trade-offs in microfinance / Anton Simanowitz

Introduction: Combining social and financial objectives

Trade-offs

Managing trade-offs

Conclusions

Smart subsidies / Jonathan Morduch

Subsidies and microfinance

Valuing subsidies

'Crowding in' and 'crowding out'

Empirical analysis

Efficiency in microfinance institutions: an application of data envelopment analysis to MFIs in Peru / Yves Flückiger and Anatoli Vassiliev

Previous research on MFIs' performance evaluation

Performance analysis methodology

Data sources and variable construction

Efficiency analysis with the DEA model

Efficiency in financial intermediation: theory and empirical measurement / Thorsten Beck

Interest spreads and credit rationing: theory

Interest spreads and credit rationing: cross-country evidence

Decomposing spreads

Explaining spreads

Conclusions and policy lessons

Efficiency drivers and constraints: empirical findings / Yousra Hamed

Methodology

The data

MFI clusters

Performance drivers and constraints

Measuring the performance of MFIs: an application of factor analysis / Giovanni Ferro Luzzii and Sylvain Weber

Factor analysis: theory and practice

Cluster analysis

Assessing what determines performance

Selected country studies

Contextual factors determining poverty outreach and financial performance: the case of Mali / Renata Serra, Fabrizio Botti and Milasoa Cherel-Robson

Domestic contextual factors: institutions, state and markets

External factors: the implications of subsidy withdrawal

Conclusion

Contextual factors determining poverty outreach and financial performance: the case of Morocco / Saâd Filali Meknassi

Institutional context

Support by banks

Subsidies

Contextual factors determining poverty outreach and financial performance: the case of Eastern Europe and Central Asia / Jusyna Pytkovwsa

Access to resources

Financial performance

Social performance

Auctioning subsidies: Chile's 'Access to Credit Program' / Vito Sciaraffia Merino

Microenterprises in Chile

Has the PAC achieved its goals?

Policy implications / Bernd Balkenhol

Global donor support to microfinance

Weight of subsidies in microfinance

What prompts public policy support to MFIs?

General effects of public policy on efficiency in microfinance at the sectoral level

Support measures affecting the efficiency of individual MFIs

The way forward: how to support the best of class and the others

Annex I : The GIAN survey

Annex II : Multivariate analysis and classification: social and financial performance

Annex III : Multivariate analysis and classification: efficiency, social and financial performance

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

"International Labour Organization"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-257) and index.

ISBN:

0230547028

9780230547025

OCLC:

145732907

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description