The intermediary role of microloan officers: Evidence from Ethiopia

Oleg Shchetinin () and Conny Wollbrant
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Oleg Shchetinin: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden

No 581, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: Microfinance institutions are key financial intermediaries between donors and borrowers in developing countries. Loan officers are crucial for establishing and maintaining the relationship between borrowers and microfinance institutions. This paper studies the impact of loan officers on the loan portfolio. We use a survey and choice experiment of 800 loan officers to estimate loan officers’ preferences over loan allocation. We investigate how these preferences are affected by the organizational structure of the microfinance institution, for example, incentive provision. We pay special attention to monitoring of borrowers and loan officer discretion. The most important determinants of loan allocation are related to the financial viability of microfinance institutions rather than the pro-social mission of microfinance. We derive recommendations for the governance of microfinance institutions.

Keywords: Financial intermediation; Microfinance; Loan officers; Loan allocation; Choice experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 L31 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2013-12-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-dev and nep-mfd
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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