Empirical research on operating efficiency and influence factors of Rural Credit Cooperatives in Gansu Province

The Rural Credit Cooperative is a significant component of rural financial system of Gansu Province. Researches about the rural credit cooperative’s operating efficiency are the keys of solving its development bottleneck and promoting its agriculture supporting ability. This study calculated the operating efficiency of Rural Credit Cooperative in Gansu Province during 2005 and 2012 using the DEA with unanticipated outputs. The results showed that credit cooperative’s operating efficiency gradually increased which had positive correlations with loan-to-deposit ratio, peasants’ per capita net incomes and loan market share, and had negative correlation with scale of asset and ratio of operating expenses based on multiple linear regressions. It suggested that completing management mechanism, innovating service and products, developing high quality customer and speeding up building competitive rural financial market.