Microfinance mission drift---a study of microfinance institutions in Asia and Latin America.

Existing literature suggests that while using self-sufficiency microfinance institutions (MFIs) become vulnerable to mission drift as a result of increasingly targeting more well-off borrowers and foregoing their poorest clients. This thesis investigates whether or not the pursuance of operational self-sufficiency tends to drive MFIs away from the poorest borrowers. This study employs panel least squares, fixed effects and random effects and uses one sample of 223 MFIs in Latin America and the Caribbean and one sample of 196 MFIs in Asia from 2005-2009. The results show that while pursuing operational self-sufficiency all MFIs in Latin America and the Caribbean are susceptible to mission drift. The results are less pronounced for Asia. --P. ii.