| For a long period,the poor and disadvantaged group,who has no fundamental rights to get access to formal financial services,has faced severe financial constraints.To solve this problem,scholars have been focusing on improving the function of financial markets and enhancing the availability of financial services.After more than 40 years of theoretical and practical exploration,it has been widely recognized by the international community that developing microfinance institutions(MFIs)with complete functions and sound systems and establishing an inclusive financial service system are significant measures to improve financial inclusiveness and cut off financial constraints.At present,the lack of financial inclusiveness is not only a problem that plagues many developing countries,but also a serious challenge that China must overcome in the process of improving the existing financial service system and advancing the rural revitalization strategy,for which China has emphasized the implementation of the inclusive financial strategy.In recent years,the "Promotion of Inclusive Finance Development Plan(2016-2020)" and a series of related policies to promote financial inclusiveness have been successively introduced,marking the improvement of overall strategic deployment and top-level design of the inclusive financial service system.With the introduction of new rural MFIs on a nationwide scale,such as village banks,rural credit cooperatives,and microcredit companies,China has initially formed a multi-layered and widely covered financial service system.MFIs have been in the ascendant and have achieved remarkable achievements as a new force in supporting agriculture and small businesses over the past few decades.However,there still exist some problems restricting their development.The lack of resources and insufficient capital strength make it difficult for MFIs to achieve self-development.At present,the crucial challenge for MFIs is how to improve efficiency effectively while maintaining the “Double Bottom Line” of financial sustainability and social outreach.Based on a comprehensive review of the theoretical literature related to the efficiency of MFIs in China and the rest of the world,this paper used a multi-dimensional and multi-method research and analysis paradigm to study the measurement of MFIs’ efficiency from the perspective of “Double-Bottom Line”.It mainly covers the following parts:(1)Establish a theoretical framework for the measurement of MFIs from the perspective of "Double Bottom Line".In this part,the study analyze the free flow of capital,the formation of financial thresholds and the comparative advantage of MFIs under partial credit equilibrium from the perspective of information economics and marginal income.(2)Analyze the development,realistic structure,model innovation and historical evolution of MFIs in China and worldwide by institutional economics.(3)Employ comparative argumentation,descriptive statistics,and case analysis methods to study the financial sustainability,social outreach and barrier of efficiency increasing for MFIs in China.(4)Study the empirical measurement of operational efficiency of MFIs,and analyze the influencing factors of financial and social efficiency from“Double-Bottom Line”perspective.Firstly,in the part,Translog-SFA method was employed to constructed cost efficiency and to measure the time of dynamic changes in the efficiency of rural MFIs from 2008 to 2016.In addition,applying DEA-Malmquist dynamic method,the author measured the financial and social efficiency of commercialized MFIs from 2014 to2017.Moreover,using WLS-Robust and other cross-section regression,the impact of service coverage,target selection,business environment,resource endowment,internal management and other influencing factors on the efficiency have been examined;Furthermore,the index analysis method was used to verify the differential development of China’s MFIs in the east,central,western from multiple dimensions of geographic penetration,service availability and continuous operation of MFIs.Besides,using the data of 499 MFIs,this study established four different efficiency models examines the comparative on multinationals.At the end,using Spearman and DEA-Tobit regression analysis,the study measured the efficiency level of China’s MFIs in the world,verified the differences in efficiency of MFIs of different countries,and analyzed the influencing factors such as credit structure,loan size,and operating period on efficiency of MFIs.Based on the theoretical analysis and empirical result,this study finds that,although it has been emphasized that MFIs must achieve self-sufficiency under the market-oriented mechanism,China’s MFIs have been facing many realistic problems such as uneven operating conditions,lack of resource endowment,narrow financing channels,imperfect risk control,inadequate laws and regulations.These problems not only seriously impede the survival and development of financial institutions,but also induce the phenomenon of "Elite Capture" and "Mission Drift".Therefore,it is necessary to draw on the international experience and closely integrate China’s actual conditions to give full play to the functions of the system,further improve the top-level design of the law,implement differentiated supervision,strengthen supporting guarantees,and cultivate the market environment to enhance the modernization of governance for MFIs comprehensively.It helps MFIs to stick to their missions and ensure both financial sustainability and social outreach has improved. |
