Technical Efficiency in a Semi‐Formal Financial Sector: The Case of Mexico*
使用随机前沿方法分析墨西哥190家半正规金融中介的技术效率，发现技术、平均贷款规模、农村覆盖率和机构年龄与效率正相关，且边际效应在不同百分位组中变化很大。
Abstract The semi‐formal financial sector in Mexico is playing an increasingly important role in serving a largely poor, rural clientele. A stochastic frontier with non‐monotonic marginal effects [ Wang, Journal of Productivity Analysis (2002 ), Vol. 18, pp. 241–253] reveals a wide disparity in technical efficiency levels among 190 Mexican semi‐formal financial intermediaries. The results show that technology, average loan size, rural outreach and institutional age are all positively associated with technical efficiency. The marginal effects vary widely and, in some cases, the effects are non‐monotonic over percentile groups. The results indicate that strengthening younger, technologically undeveloped financial institutions will have the strongest marginal benefit in revitalizing the rural financial sector.