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Moral Incentives in Credit Card Debt Repayment: Evidence from a Field Experiment

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  • Leonardo Bursztyn
  • Stefano Fiorin
  • Daniel Gottlieb
  • Martin Kanz

Abstract

We study the role of morality in debt repayment, using an experiment with the credit card customers of a large Islamic bank in Indonesia. In our main treatment, clients receive a text message stating that “non-repayment of debts by someone who is able to repay is an injustice.” This moral appeal decreases the share of delinquent customers by 4.4 percentage points from a baseline of 66 percent, and reduces default among the customers with the highest ex-ante credit risk. Additional treatments help benchmark the effects against those of direct financial incentives, understand the underlying mechanisms, and rule out competing explanations, such as reminder effects, priming religion, signaling the lender's commitment to debt collection, and provision of new information.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Bursztyn & Stefano Fiorin & Daniel Gottlieb & Martin Kanz, 2015. "Moral Incentives in Credit Card Debt Repayment: Evidence from a Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 21611, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21611
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G02 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Behavioral Finance: Underlying Principles
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

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