Investigating the unobserved heterogeneity effect on outreach to women: lessons from microfinance institutions

François-Seck Fall, Hubert Tchakoute Tchuigoua, Anne Vanhems and Leopold Simar
Additional contact information
François-Seck Fall: LEREPS - Laboratoire d'Etude et de Recherche sur l'Economie, les Politiques et les Systèmes Sociaux - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - UT2J - Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès - UT - Université de Toulouse - Institut d'Études Politiques [IEP] - Toulouse - ENSFEA - École Nationale Supérieure de Formation de l'Enseignement Agricole de Toulouse-Auzeville

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: The main objective of this study is to assess the impact of unobserved heterogeneity on microfinance social efficiency analysis. Based on recent nonparametric techniques and directional distances, we identify a latent heterogeneity factor related to the microfinance institute (MFI) manager's ability to promote women, independent of MFI size. We test for the significance of this unobserved factor and analyze the impact of MFI social inefficiency measures. Using a cross-country sample of 501 MFIs in 2011 from six main regions of the world, our findings reveal a significant effect of unobserved heterogeneity on the frontier and hence stress the importance of subjective factors in defining the set of production possibilities. We assess the robustness of our findings with the considered profit-oriented status and analyze the link between our unobserved heterogeneity factor and institutional and socioeconomic indicators.

Keywords: Operations research in developing countries; Microfinance; Gender; Social efficiency; Unobserved heterogeneity; Nonparametric robust frontier models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-05-02
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Annals of Operations Research, 2023, 328, pp.1365-1386. ⟨10.1007/s10479-023-05353-y⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Investigating the unobserved heterogeneity effect on outreach to women: lessons from microfinance institutions (2023)
Working Paper: Investigating the unobserved heterogeneity effect on outreach to women: lessons from microfinance institutions (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04102122

DOI: 10.1007/s10479-023-05353-y

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().