IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v210y2023icp26-42.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

(Loan) price and (loan officer) prejudice

Author

Listed:
  • Bertrand, Jérémie
  • Burietz, Aurore

Abstract

Although the role of loan officers in the credit process has been extensively discussed in the literature, their individual prejudices have been neglected. The literature on decision making relies on the assumption that all loan officers perceive and use information similarly, regardless of their individual and psychological backgrounds. We challenge this assumption by investigating how loan officers’ prejudices toward the information used in the decision process affect loan spreads. Using data on corporate loans from a large French bank, we document the influence of discrepancies in loan officers’ prejudices according to the type of information they consider. Our results suggest that loan officers’ prejudices not only significantly affect loan outcomes but also play a moderating role in the use of information. We also show that loan officers’ and borrowers’ characteristics influence these effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertrand, Jérémie & Burietz, Aurore, 2023. "(Loan) price and (loan officer) prejudice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 26-42.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:210:y:2023:i:c:p:26-42
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.04.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268123001129
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2023.04.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thorsten Beck & Patrick Behr & Andre Guettler, 2013. "Gender and Banking: Are Women Better Loan Officers?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(4), pages 1279-1321.
    2. Sara Carter & Eleanor Shaw & Wing Lam & Fiona Wilson, 2007. "Gender, Entrepreneurship, and Bank Lending: The Criteria and Processes Used by Bank Loan Officers in Assessing Applications," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(3), pages 427-444, May.
    3. Paola Morales‐Acevedo & Steven Ongena, 2020. "Fear, Anger, And Credit. On Bank Robberies And Loan Conditions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(2), pages 921-952, April.
    4. Allen N. Berger & Marco A. Espinosa‐Vega & W. Scott Frame & Nathan H. Miller, 2005. "Debt Maturity, Risk, and Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2895-2923, December.
    5. Brandts, Jordi & Rott, Christina, 2021. "Advice from women and men and selection into competition," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    6. Shawn Cole & Martin Kanz & Leora Klapper, 2015. "Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking: Evidence from an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(2), pages 537-575, April.
    7. Stefano DellaVigna, 2009. "Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 315-372, June.
    8. Allen N. Berger & Gregory F. Udell, 2002. "Small Business Credit Availability and Relationship Lending: The Importance of Bank Organisational Structure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages 32-53, February.
    9. Campbell, Dennis & Loumioti, Maria & Wittenberg-Moerman, Regina, 2019. "Making sense of soft information: interpretation bias and loan quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    10. Bacha, Sami & Azouzi, Mohamed Ali, 2019. "How gender and emotions bias the credit decision-making in banking firms," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 183-191.
    11. Hirshleifer, David & Teoh, Siew Hong, 2003. "Limited attention, information disclosure, and financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 337-386, December.
    12. Bushman, Robert & Gao, Janet & Martin, Xiumin & Pacelli, Joseph, 2021. "The influence of loan officers on loan contract design and performance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2).
    13. Sumit Agarwal, 2010. "Distance and Private Information in Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(7), pages 2757-2788, July.
    14. Burietz, A. & Ureche-Rangau, L., 2020. "Better the devil you know: Home and sectoral biases in bank lending," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 69-85.
    15. Behr, Patrick & Drexler, Alejandro & Gropp, Reint & Guettler, Andre, 2020. "Financial Incentives and Loan Officer Behavior: Multitasking and Allocation of Effort under an Incomplete Contract," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(4), pages 1243-1267, June.
    16. Bartoli, Francesca & Ferri, Giovanni & Murro, Pierluigi & Rotondi, Zeno, 2013. "SME financing and the choice of lending technology in Italy: Complementarity or substitutability?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5476-5485.
    17. Andersson, Patric, 2004. "Does experience matter in lending? A process-tracing study on experienced loan officers' and novices' decision behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 471-492, August.
    18. Trönnberg, Carl-Christian & Hemlin, Sven, 2014. "Lending decision making in banks: A critical incident study of loan officers," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 362-372.
    19. Michael Minnis & Andrew Sutherland, 2017. "Financial Statements as Monitoring Mechanisms: Evidence from Small Commercial Loans," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 197-233, March.
    20. Ferri, Giovanni & Murro, Pierluigi & Peruzzi, Valentina & Rotondi, Zeno, 2019. "Bank lending technologies and credit availability in Europe: What can we learn from the crisis?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 128-148.
    21. Agier, Isabelle & Szafarz, Ariane, 2013. "Microfinance and Gender: Is There a Glass Ceiling on Loan Size?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 165-181.
    22. Uchida, Hirofumi & Udell, Gregory F. & Yamori, Nobuyoshi, 2012. "Loan officers and relationship lending to SMEs," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 97-122.
    23. Mathias Dewatripont & Jean Tirole, 2005. "Modes of Communication," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(6), pages 1217-1238, December.
    24. Ajay Palvia & Emilia Vähämaa & Sami Vähämaa, 2015. "Are Female CEOs and Chairwomen More Conservative and Risk Averse? Evidence from the Banking Industry During the Financial Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 577-594, October.
    25. Cem Demiroglu & Oguzhan Ozbas & Rui C. Silva & Mehmet Fati̇h Ulu, 2021. "Do Physiological and Spiritual Factors Affect Economic Decisions?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(5), pages 2481-2523, October.
    26. Cassar, Gavin & Ittner, Christopher D. & Cavalluzzo, Ken S., 2015. "Alternative information sources and information asymmetry reduction: Evidence from small business debt," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 242-263.
    27. Stefano Dellavigna & Joshua M. Pollet, 2009. "Investor Inattention and Friday Earnings Announcements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 709-749, April.
    28. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 991-1013, September.
    29. Fiona Wilson, 2016. "Making Loan Decisions in Banks: Straight from the Gut?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(1), pages 53-63, August.
    30. Carbonero, Francesco & Devicienti, Francesco & Manello, Alessandro & Vannoni, Davide, 2021. "Women on board and firm export attitudes: Evidence from Italy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 159-175.
    31. Jun Qian & Philip E. Strahan, 2007. "How Laws and Institutions Shape Financial Contracts: The Case of Bank Loans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(6), pages 2803-2834, December.
    32. Beck, Thorsten & Behr, Patrick & Madestam, Andreas, 2018. "Sex and credit: Do gender interactions matter for credit market outcomes?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 380-396.
    33. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March.
    34. Pantzalis, Christos & Ucar, Erdem, 2014. "Religious holidays, investor distraction, and earnings announcement effects," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 102-117.
    35. David Hirshleifer & Sonya Seongyeon Lim & Siew Hong Teoh, 2009. "Driven to Distraction: Extraneous Events and Underreaction to Earnings News," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2289-2325, October.
    36. José María Liberti & Mitchell A Petersen, 2019. "Information: Hard and Soft," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(1), pages 1-41.
    37. Bertrand, Jérémie & Weill, Laurent, 2021. "Do algorithms discriminate against African Americans in lending?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    38. Anastasiou, Dimitris & Kallandranis, Christos & Drakos, Konstantinos, 2022. "Borrower discouragement prevalence for Eurozone SMEs: Investigating the impact of economic sentiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 161-171.
    39. Marrit van den Berg & Robert Lensink & Roselia Servin, 2015. "Loan Officers' Gender and Microfinance Repayment Rates," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(9), pages 1241-1254, September.
    40. Alejandro Drexler & Antoinette Schoar, 2014. "Do Relationships Matter? Evidence from Loan Officer Turnover," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(11), pages 2722-2736, November.
    41. Lohse, Tim & Qari, Salmai, 2021. "Gender differences in face-to-face deceptive behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 1-15.
    42. Tobias Berg & Manju Puri & Jörg Rocholl, 2020. "Loan Officer Incentives, Internal Rating Models, and Default Rates," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 24(3), pages 529-578.
    43. Ogura, Yoshiaki, 2010. "Interbank competition and information production: Evidence from the interest rate difference," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 279-304, April.
    44. Agarwal, Sumit & Ben-David, Itzhak, 2018. "Loan prospecting and the loss of soft information," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(3), pages 608-628.
    45. Marion Dupire & Frédéric Lobez & Jean-Christophe Statnik, 2021. "Credit spread determinants. How loan officer seniority matters," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 42(3), pages 139-179.
    46. Huang, Henry He & Lobo, Gerald J. & Wang, Chong & Zhou, Jian, 2018. "Do Banks Price Independent Directors’ Attention?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(4), pages 1755-1780, August.
    47. Michael Siegrist & Joseph Árvai, 2020. "Risk Perception: Reflections on 40 Years of Research," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(S1), pages 2191-2206, November.
    48. Robert Cressy & Otto Toivanen, 2001. "Is there adverse selection in the credit market?," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(3), pages 215-238, July.
    49. Rodgers, Waymond, 1999. "The influences of conflicting information on novices and loan officers' actions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 123-145, April.
    50. Chen, Qi & Vashishtha, Rahul, 2017. "The effects of bank mergers on corporate information disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 56-77.
    51. Herpfer, Christoph, 2021. "The role of bankers in the U.S. syndicated loan market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2).
    52. deHaan, Ed & Shevlin, Terry & Thornock, Jacob, 2015. "Market (in)attention and the strategic scheduling and timing of earnings announcements," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 36-55.
    53. Jefferson Duarte & Stephan Siegel & Lance Young, 2012. "Trust and Credit: The Role of Appearance in Peer-to-peer Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(8), pages 2455-2484.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Campbell, Dennis & Loumioti, Maria & Wittenberg-Moerman, Regina, 2019. "Making sense of soft information: interpretation bias and loan quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    2. Li, Jiyuan & Li, Zihui & Zhang, Min, 2023. "CFOs’ facial trustworthiness and bank loan contracts," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 332-357.
    3. Miao Liu, 2022. "Assessing Human Information Processing in Lending Decisions: A Machine Learning Approach," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 607-651, May.
    4. Marko Jakšič & Matej Marinč, 2019. "Relationship banking and information technology: the role of artificial intelligence and FinTech," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Hubert Tchakoute Tchuigoua, 2023. "Loan officer gender and loan repayment performance. Evidence from greenfield microfinance institutions in Cameroon1," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(2), pages 519-548, June.
    6. John Gallemore & Martin Jacob, 2020. "Corporate Tax Enforcement Externalities and the Banking Sector," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(5), pages 1117-1159, December.
    7. Costello, Anna M. & Down, Andrea K. & Mehta, Mihir N., 2020. "Machine + man: A field experiment on the role of discretion in augmenting AI-based lending models," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    8. Stefano Filomeni & Michele Modina & Elena Tabacco, 2023. "Trade credit and firm investments: empirical evidence from Italian cooperative banks," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 1099-1141, April.
    9. Bertrand, Jérémie & Klein, Paul-Olivier, 2021. "Creditor information registries and relationship lending," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Chu, Yinxiao & Li, Zhao & Wei, Jianxing & Wu, Weixing, 2022. "A tale of two markets: Labor market mobility and bank information sharing," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    11. Song Zhang & Liang Han & Konstantinos Kallias & Antonios Kallias, 2021. "The value of in-person banking: evidence from U.S. small businesses," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1393-1435, November.
    12. Kirschenmann, K., 2010. "The Dynamics in Requested and Granted Loan Terms when Bank and Borrower Interact Repeatedly," Other publications TiSEM 40d5005c-1626-4511-aa8a-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Bertrand, Jérémie & Murro, Pierluigi, 2022. "Firm–bank “odd couples” and trade credit: Evidence from Italian small- and medium-sized enterprises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    14. Pierluigi Murro & Valentina Peruzzi, 2022. "Relationship lending and the use of trade credit: the role of relational capital and private information," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 327-360, June.
    15. Loukil Sahar & Jarboui Anis, 2016. "Loan officers and soft information production," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1199521-119, December.
    16. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    17. Ferri, Giovanni & Minetti, Raoul & Murro, Pierluigi, 2019. "Credit Relationships in the great trade collapse. Micro evidence from Europe," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    18. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2010. "Does gender matter in bank-firm relationships? Evidence from small business lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2968-2984, December.
    19. Kirschenmann, K., 2010. "The Dynamics in Requested and Granted Loan Terms when Bank and Borrower Interact Repeatedly," Other publications TiSEM 300df022-4701-4773-a8b7-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. Luca Papi & Emma Sarno & Alberto Zazzaro, 2017. "The geographical network of bank organizations: issues and evidence for Italy," Chapters, in: Ron Martin & Jane Pollard (ed.), Handbook on the Geographies of Money and Finance, chapter 8, pages 156-196, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank; Behavior; Loan officer; Credit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:210:y:2023:i:c:p:26-42. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.