IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/phajad/321904.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions in Thailand

Author

Listed:
  • Hemtanon, Wittawat
  • Gan, Christopher

Abstract

Microfinance programs play a vital role in poverty alleviation in developing countries; however, most microfinance institutions (MFIs) face the challenge of maintaining financial sustainability. While several studies have investigated factors affecting MFI financial sustainability, only a few focus on MFIs in Thailand. This paper uses the random effect model to study the determinants of Thai MFIs’ financial sustainability. Results show that sustainability is affected by the efficiency of Thai MFI staff members in managing borrowers and the MFIs’ ability to use their short-term assets to generate cash or revenue. Moreover, Thai MFIs do not benefit from economies of scale and do not reach the very poor households. This study recommends that MFIs should ensure that their social and financial goals are adequately balanced. It proposes that MFIs use a mixed approach: follow profit maximization principles and embrace technology to minimize operational costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Hemtanon, Wittawat & Gan, Christopher, 2022. "Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions in Thailand," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), vol. 19(1), June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:phajad:321904
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.321904
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/321904/files/ONLINE_05_Hemtanon.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.321904?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Menkhoff, Lukas & Rungruxsirivorn, Ornsiri, 2011. "Do Village Funds Improve Access to Finance? Evidence from Thailand," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 110-122, January.
    2. Innocent BAYAI & Sylvanus IKHIDE, 2018. "FINANCING STRUCTURE AND FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY OF SELECTED SADC MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS (MFIs)," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(4), pages 665-696, December.
    3. Cheng Hsiao, 2007. "Panel data analysis—advantages and challenges," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, May.
    4. Julia Meyer, 2019. "Outreach and performance of microfinance institutions: the importance of portfolio yield," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(27), pages 2945-2962, June.
    5. Joanna Ledgerwood, 1998. "Microfinance Handbook: An Institutional and Financial Perspective," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 12383.
    6. Hermes, Niels & Lensink, Robert, 2011. "Microfinance: Its Impact, Outreach, and Sustainability," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 875-881, June.
    7. Boonperm, Jirawan & Haughton, Jonathan & Khandker, Shahidur R., 2013. "Does the Village Fund matter in Thailand? Evaluating the impact on incomes and spending," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 3-16.
    8. Shamima Nasrin & Rajah Rasiah & Angathevar Baskaran & Muhammad Mehedi Masud, 2018. "What determines the financial performance of microfinance institutions in Bangladesh? a panel data analysis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 1409-1422, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Umawadee Detthamrong & Lan Thi Nguyen & Wirapong Chansanam, 2023. "Leadership and Group Management: Key Success Factors for Microfinance Institutions in Chaiyaphum Province, Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-20, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lucia Dalla Pellegrina & Giorgio Di Maio & Paolo Landoni & Emanuele Rusinà, 2021. "Money management and entrepreneurial training in microfinance: impact on beneficiaries and institutions," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 1049-1085, October.
    2. María Jesús Segovia‐Vargas & I. Marta Miranda‐García & Freddy Alejandro Oquendo‐Torres, 2023. "Sustainable finance: The role of savings and credit cooperatives in Ecuador," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 951-980, September.
    3. Wijesiri, Mahinda & Yaron, Jacob & Meoli, Michele, 2017. "Assessing the financial and outreach efficiency of microfinance institutions: Do age and size matter?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 63-76.
    4. Wittawat Hemtanon & Christopher Gan, 2020. "Microfinance Participation in Thailand," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-27, June.
    5. Diego Vera-Cossio, 2022. "Targeting Credit through Community Members," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 778-821.
    6. Fan Wang, 2022. "An Empirical Equilibrium Model of Formal and Informal Credit Markets in Developing Countries," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 46, pages 224-243, October.
    7. Wu, Wentao & Lin, Zhilu & Oghazi, Pejvak & Patel, Pankaj C., 2022. "The impact of demonetization on microfinance institutions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 1-18.
    8. Peter Wanke & M. Kabir Hassan & Md. Abul Kalam Azad & Md. Azizur Rahman & Naznin Akther, 2022. "Application of a distributed verification in Islamic microfinance institutions: a sustainable model," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.
    9. Wijesiri, Mahinda & Yaron, Jacob & Meoli, Michele, 2015. "Performance of microfinance institutions in achieving the poverty outreach and financial sustainability: When age and size matter?," MPRA Paper 69821, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Girma Jirata Duguma & Jiqin Han, 2018. "Effect of Deposit Mobilization on the Financial Sustainability of Rural Saving and Credit Cooperatives: Evidence from Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-23, September.
    11. Wang, Bo & Yu, Yunjun & Yang, Ziying & Zhang, Xiaomei, 2021. "Microfinance institutions and Peer-to-Peer lending: What does microfinance competition bring?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    12. Hany Eldemerdash & Hugh Metcalf & Sara Maioli, 2014. "Twin deficits: new evidence from a developing (oil vs. non-oil) countries’ perspective," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 825-851, November.
    13. Vassiliki Avgerinou & Stefanos Giakoumatos, 2009. "Price, Income & Unemployment Effects on Greek Professional Football," Working Papers 0907, International Association of Sports Economists;North American Association of Sports Economists.
    14. Fall, François Seck & Tchakoute Tchuigoua, Hubert & Vanhems, Anne & Simar, Léopold, 2022. "Investigating the unobserved heterogeneity effect on microfinance social efficiency," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2022010, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    15. Maryia Bakhtsiyarava & Kathryn Grace, 2021. "Agricultural production diversity and child nutrition in Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1407-1422, December.
    16. Ding Luo & Oded Cats & Hans Lint, 2020. "Can passenger flow distribution be estimated solely based on network properties in public transport systems?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 2757-2776, December.
    17. Islam, Asadul & Nguyen, Chau & Smyth, Russell, 2015. "Does microfinance change informal lending in village economies? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 141-156.
    18. Amendola,Alessandra & Boccia,Marinella & Mele,Gianluca & Sensini,Luca, 2016. "Financial access and household welfare : evidence from Mauritania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7533, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural Finance;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:phajad:321904. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/searcph.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.