Performance des institutions de microfinance et leur accessibilité en Asie du Sud et de l’Est
Author: Phan, Huong
Under the direction of: Michel Simioni
SupAgro, Montpellier
English text
Keywords: Economy, Southeast Asia, Microfinance, Financial performance, Social performance, Random forest, Access to credit, Ethnic minority.
Abstract
This thesis investigates several topics in microfinance in South and East Asia. The appearance of microfinance has been known as a solution to alleviate poverty in rural area. Millions of poor families in developing countries have accessed to formal financial services through microfinance programs. However, many households still face major constraints in their credit access due to many reasons, such as short of collaterals or unable to access formal finance specifically in the South and East Asia where the region remains home to almost half of the world’s poorest individuals. In addition to an introduction and a conclusion, this thesis comprises three self-contained papers, each paper corresponding to one chapter. A common thread of the three papers is to provide an overview of both sides of the microfinance market : demand (borrowers) and supply (microfinance institutions). The first chapter assesses performance of microfinance institutions of South and East Asia. The second and third chapters focus on Vietnam rural credit market and investigate credit accessibility of households in rural area. The study analyses the informal credit access and finds the gap of accessibility between different ethnic minority groups to both formal and informal credit sources. This thesis aims to contribute to current knowledge on the development and the characteristics of microfinance in South and East Asia, by investigating strategic factors affecting microfinance operations. In addition, this thesis finds that the chance of getting credit is not equivalent among rural and poor areas. The be-low will summarize each chapter. The first chapter presents new evidence on financial and social performances of microfinance institutions in South and East Asia region. Financial performance is assessed using return on assets and operational self-sufficiency while social performance is assessed using depth and breadth of outreach. Dynamic panel data models are used to measure the impact of different factors (board characteristics, microfinance institution characteristics and country socio-economic conditions) on these measures of performances. These models are estimated using system-GMM to take into account all potential endogeneity issues encountered in dynamic panel data. Models are fitted using data from 305 microfinance institutions in 19 Asian-Pacific countries over the period from 2006 to 2015. Results show that board size and gender diversity have negative impacts on performance while board social orientation positively affects financial performance. In addition, past performance, leverage and total assets also have positive effects on financial performance. In addition, our findings suggest that firms should have a more efficient view regarding structuring board size and having social activities, as we show that a greater proportion of social orientation creates value of, more or less, 1.2% on ROA. This increase in MFIs’ economic performance which often accompanied by greater visibility and commitments to corporate social responsibilities.
