Expanding Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions to Estimate the Impacts

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Karlan, Dean; Zinman, Jonathan
• 署名单位: Dartmouth College; Yale University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhp092
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 433
• 关键词: programs; GENDER; HEALTH; POOR

摘要

Expanding access to commercial credit is a key ingredient of financial development strategies. There is less consensus on whether expanding access to consumer credit helps borrowers, particularly when loans are extended at high interest rates. Popular skepticism about unproductive, usurious lending is fueled by research highlighting behavioral biases that may induce overborrowing. We estimate the impacts of expanding access to consumer credit at a 200% annual percentage rate (APR) using a field experiment and follow-up data collection. The randomly assigned marginal loans produced significant net benefits for borrowers across a wide range of outcomes. There is also some evidence that the loans were profitable.