Give Me a Pass: Flexible Credit for Entrepreneurs in Colombia

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Brune, Lasse; Gine, Xavier; Karlan, Dean
• 署名单位: Northwestern University; The World Bank; Northwestern University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueaf116
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: CONTRACT STRUCTURE; selection

摘要

Although microcredit has reached millions, recent randomised evaluations find limited average business impacts. Contract rigidity, specifically the fixed and frequent instalments, may restrict moral hazard, but limit productive risk-taking, thus limiting the impact. With a Colombian lender, we experimentally compared, for a sample of new borrowers, a standard rigid loan to a more flexible loan that included three 'passes' with which borrowers could delay repayments. The flexible loan led to some shifts in investment behaviour, but had no average impact on revenue, profit level, or profit variance, and led to higher default.