EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF UNITED-STATES CREDIT UNIONS

Credit unions are small, cooperative, not-for-profit institutions, whi ch distinguishes them from other financial intermediaries. In this stu dy we conduct a performance evaluation of credit unions. The criteria respect the unique organizational and institutional features of credit unions, without losing sight of the fact that they must compete with other financial intermediaries. We use nonparametric, nonstochastic te chniques to measure performance, and we use parametric, stochastic tec hniques to attribute performance variation to features of credit union s and their operating environment. Our sample consists of two-thirds o f all active credit unions in 1990.