IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v50y2014i2p276-287.html

Do Risky Microfinance Borrowers Really Invest in Risky Projects? Experimental Evidence from Bolivia

Author

Listed:
  • Eliana Zeballos
  • Alessandra Cassar
  • Bruce Wydick

Abstract

This paper reports the results of an experiment testing a fundamental assumption in Stiglitz and Weiss' (1981) model of credit rationing: that defaulting borrowers are associated with investment in risky projects. Through an artefactual field experiment with 200 Bolivian microfinance borrowers, we observe that subjects from real-world delinquent borrowing groups do not prefer risky projects to safer ones significantly more than subjects from repaying groups. Instead, our results support more recent behavioural theories of credit market failure. Implications are that defaulting microfinance borrowers may be those who take too little investment risk rather than those who take too much.

Suggested Citation

  • Eliana Zeballos & Alessandra Cassar & Bruce Wydick, 2014. "Do Risky Microfinance Borrowers Really Invest in Risky Projects? Experimental Evidence from Bolivia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 276-287, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:50:y:2014:i:2:p:276-287
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2013.858124
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2013.858124
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220388.2013.858124?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghatak, Maitreesh & Guinnane, Timothy W., 2003. "Erratum to "The economics of lending with joint liability: theory and practice" [J. Devel. Econ. 60 (1999) 195-228," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 261-262, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marc Labie & Carolina Laureti & Ariane Szafarz, 2016. "Discipline and Flexibility: A Behavioral Perspective on Product Design in Microfinance," Working Papers CEB 15-020, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Maria Patricia Durango‐Gutiérrez & Juan Lara‐Rubio & Andrés Navarro‐Galera, 2023. "Analysis of default risk in microfinance institutions under the Basel III framework," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 1261-1278, April.

    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. Thorsten Beck & Patrick Behr, 2017. "Individual versus Village Lending: Evidence from Montenegro," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 67-87, November.
    2. van Rijn, Jordan, 2018. "The Effect of Membership Expansion on Credit Union Risk and Returns," Staff Paper Series 588, University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    3. Pies, Ingo & Hielscher, Stefan & Beckmann, Markus, 2008. "Corporate citizenship as stakeholder management: An ordonomic approach to business ethics," Discussion Papers 2008-4, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    4. Bauchet, Jonathan & Chakravarty, Sugato & Hunter, Brian, 2018. "Separating the wheat from the chaff: Signaling in microfinance loans," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 40-50.
    5. F. Calidoni-Lundberg & A. Fedele, 2006. "Technology replaces culture in microcredit markets: the case of Italian MAGs," Economics Department Working Papers 2006-EP11, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    6. Diego A. B. Marconatto & Luciano Barin-Cruz & Eugenio Pedrozo, 2016. "Lending Groups and Different Social Capitals in Developed and Developing Countries," RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração, vol. 20(6), pages 651-672.
    7. Mohammad Zainuddin & Ida Md Yasin, 2020. "Resurgence of an Ancient Idea? A Study on the History of Microfinance," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 9(2), pages 78-84, June.
    8. Samuel Lee & Petra Persson, 2016. "Financing from Family and Friends," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(9), pages 2341-2386.
    9. Olivier Accominotti & Delio Lucena‐Piquero & Stefano Ugolini, 2021. "The origination and distribution of money market instruments: sterling bills of exchange during the first globalization," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(4), pages 892-921, November.
    10. Sara Biancini & David Ettinger & Baptiste Venet, 2021. "When Pro-Poor Microcredit Institutions Favor Richer Borrowers - A Moral Hazard Story," CESifo Working Paper Series 8893, CESifo.
    11. Meenakshi Rajeev & B.P. Vani & Veerashekharappa, 2017. "Self-help groups for India’s financial inclusion: Do effective costs of borrowing limit their operation?," ICDD Working Papers 19, University of Kassel, Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften (Social Sciences), Internatioanl Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD).
    12. Czura, Kristina, 2015. "Do flexible repayment schedules improve the impact of microcredit?," Discussion Papers in Economics 26608, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    13. Mersland, Roy & Strøm, R. Øystein, 2010. "Microfinance Mission Drift?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 28-36, January.
    14. Guinnane, Timothy W., 2001. "Delegated Monitors, Large and Small: The Development of Germany's Banking System, 1800-1914," Center Discussion Papers 28447, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    15. Macchiavello, Rocco & Casaburi, Lorenzo, 2015. "Firm and Market Response to Saving Constraints: Evidence from the Kenyan Dairy Industry," CEPR Discussion Papers 10952, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    16. de Quidt, Jonathan & Fetzer, Thiemo & Ghatak, Maitreesh, 2016. "Group lending without joint liability," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 217-236.
    17. Giorgia Barboni & Alessandra Cassar & Arturo Rodriguez Trejo & Bruce Wydick, 2013. "Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard in Joint Liability Loan Contracts: Evidence from an Artefactual Field Experiment," Journal of Economics and Management, College of Business, Feng Chia University, Taiwan, vol. 9(2), pages 153-184, July.
    18. Suesse, Marvin & Wolf, Nikolaus, 2020. "Rural transformation, inequality, and the origins of microfinance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    19. Daripa, Arup, 2008. "Optimal collective contract without peer information or peer monitoring," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 147-163, April.
    20. Mikhail Drugov & Rocco Macchiavello, 2014. "Financing Experimentation," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 315-349, February.

    More about this item

    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:taf:jdevst:v:50:y:2014:i:2:p:276-287. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    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.