Autonomy and Financial Performance in Informal Savings Associations
研究非政府组织在发展中国家组建的非正规储蓄小组，发现小组在财务运营上自主性越高，财务绩效越好，且后续周期中绩效提升更明显，表明自主性有助于小组适应改进。
A multitude of NGOs form informal savings and lending associations in developing countries, called savings groups. Group members are responsible for the day-to-day governance, operating within the framework provided by the NGOs. As NGOs differ in the model they provide, savings groups are endowed with different levels of autonomy over their operations. Drawing on theories related to autonomy and performance, we test whether more autonomous savings groups perform better. A two-way correlated random effects regression on data for 97,653 savings groups formed by five NGOs in 16 countries shows that savings groups with more autonomy over their financial operations demonstrate greater financial performance. Additionally, the financial performance of more autonomous savings groups improves more in subsequent cycles, suggesting that savings groups with more autonomy have a greater ability to adapt. We argue that groups thus benefit from being granted more autonomy over their day-to-day operations. Our study may have broader implications for similar development interventions by NGOs, in which participants could benefit from increased autonomy.