Selective Knowledge: Reporting Biases in Microfinance Data

This chapter shows systematic biases in microfinance institutions' choices about which survey to respond to and which specific indicators to report. The analysis focuses on data for 2,072 microfinance institutions from MixMarket and the Microcredit Summit Campaign databases for the years 2004-2006. The chapter describes the Microcredit Summit Campaign, MixMarket, and the dataset. It also describes patterns in reporting, beginning with where institutions report and proceeding to the correlates of which specific indicators are reported. The chapter illustrates how non-randomness in reporting can influence analyses of microfinance by contrasting results on the relationship between increasing outreach to women and increasing operational self-sufficiency. Leading practitioners and policymakers fought hard in the 1990s to improve financial reporting and transparency in the microfinance sector. The results confirm that poverty-focused institutions are more likely to report to the Microcredit Summit Campaign and less likely to report to MixMarket.