Does competition enhance the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions?

This paper investigates how competition affects the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs). While classical economic theory highlights that competition enhances efficiency and benefits both customers and firms, we argue that this is unlikely to apply to institutions opera...

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Main Authors: Hossain, Shahadat, Galbreath, Jeremy, Hasan, Mostafa, Randøy, T.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: ELSEVIER 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85245
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author Hossain, Shahadat
Galbreath, Jeremy
Hasan, Mostafa
Randøy, T.
author_facet Hossain, Shahadat
Galbreath, Jeremy
Hasan, Mostafa
Randøy, T.
author_sort Hossain, Shahadat
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper investigates how competition affects the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs). While classical economic theory highlights that competition enhances efficiency and benefits both customers and firms, we argue that this is unlikely to apply to institutions operating in socially oriented industries, such as microfinance. Using a cross-country dataset of 4576 MFI-year observations (1139 unique MFIs) operating in 59 countries over a 10-year period (2005-2014), we find that competition has an adverse effect on MFIs’ economic sustainability and that competition undermines their breadth of outreach but enhances their depth of outreach. These results are robust to alternative specifications of competition and to the use of a two-stage least squares (2SLS) analysis to alleviate the endogeneity concern. The findings from our analysis have important implications when considering the regulation of MFI competition, especially in the light of the recent turmoil of MFI markets in some developing countries.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-852452021-10-18T00:19:55Z Does competition enhance the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions? Hossain, Shahadat Galbreath, Jeremy Hasan, Mostafa Randøy, T. Social Sciences Business, Finance Economics Business & Economics Competition Boone indicator Microfinance institutions Performance Sustainability BANK COMPETITION MARKET POWER COST EFFICIENCY CREDIT GOVERNANCE OUTREACH INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE LEADERSHIP This paper investigates how competition affects the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs). While classical economic theory highlights that competition enhances efficiency and benefits both customers and firms, we argue that this is unlikely to apply to institutions operating in socially oriented industries, such as microfinance. Using a cross-country dataset of 4576 MFI-year observations (1139 unique MFIs) operating in 59 countries over a 10-year period (2005-2014), we find that competition has an adverse effect on MFIs’ economic sustainability and that competition undermines their breadth of outreach but enhances their depth of outreach. These results are robust to alternative specifications of competition and to the use of a two-stage least squares (2SLS) analysis to alleviate the endogeneity concern. The findings from our analysis have important implications when considering the regulation of MFI competition, especially in the light of the recent turmoil of MFI markets in some developing countries. 2020 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85245 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2020.105765 English ELSEVIER restricted
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Business, Finance
Economics
Business & Economics
Competition
Boone indicator
Microfinance institutions
Performance
Sustainability
BANK COMPETITION
MARKET POWER
COST
EFFICIENCY
CREDIT
GOVERNANCE
OUTREACH
INDUSTRY
PERSPECTIVE
LEADERSHIP
Hossain, Shahadat
Galbreath, Jeremy
Hasan, Mostafa
Randøy, T.
Does competition enhance the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions?
title Does competition enhance the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions?
title_full Does competition enhance the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions?
title_fullStr Does competition enhance the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions?
title_full_unstemmed Does competition enhance the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions?
title_short Does competition enhance the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions?
title_sort does competition enhance the double-bottom-line performance of microfinance institutions?
topic Social Sciences
Business, Finance
Economics
Business & Economics
Competition
Boone indicator
Microfinance institutions
Performance
Sustainability
BANK COMPETITION
MARKET POWER
COST
EFFICIENCY
CREDIT
GOVERNANCE
OUTREACH
INDUSTRY
PERSPECTIVE
LEADERSHIP
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85245