The value of financial intermediation: Evidence from online debt crowdfunding

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Braggion, Fabio; Manconi, Alberto; Pavanini, Nicola; Zhu, Haikun
• 署名单位: Tilburg University; Bocconi University; China Europe International Business School
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2025.104113
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: Financial intermediation; Marketplace credit; structural estimation

摘要

Most online marketplaces are peer-to-peer. Credit ones, however, are not and they have resurrected many features of traditional financial intermediaries. To understand why, we use online credit as a laboratory to investigate the value of financial intermediation. We develop a structural model of online debt crowdfunding and estimate it on a novel database. We find that abandoning the peer-to-peer paradigm raises lender surplus, platform profits, and credit provision, but exposes investors to liquidity risk. A counterfactual where the platform resembles a bank by bearing liquidity risk can generate larger lender surplus and credit provision when liquidity is low and lenders are risk averse.