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Identification strategy : a field experiment on dynamic incentives in rural credit markets

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Listed:
  • Gine, Xavier
  • Goldberg, Jessica
  • Yang, Dean

Abstract

How do borrowers respond to improvements in a lender's ability to punish defaulters? This paper reports the results of a randomized field experiment in rural Malawi that examines the impact of fingerprinting borrowers in a context where a unique identification system is absent. Fingerprinting allows the lender to more effectively use dynamic repayment incentives: withholding future loans from past defaulters while rewarding good borrowers with better loan terms. Consistent with a simple model of borrower heterogeneity and information asymmetries, fingerprinting led to substantially higher repayment rates for borrowers with the highest ex ante default risk, but had no effect for the rest of the borrowers. The change in repayment rates is driven by reductions in adverse selection (smaller loan sizes) and lower moral hazard (for example, less diversion of loan-financed fertilizer from its intended use on the cash crop).

Suggested Citation

  • Gine, Xavier & Goldberg, Jessica & Yang, Dean, 2010. "Identification strategy : a field experiment on dynamic incentives in rural credit markets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5438, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5438
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. B Kelsey Jack, "undated". "Market Inefficiencies and the Adoption of Agricultural Technologies in Developing Countries," CID Working Papers 50, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    2. Thorsten Beck & Samuel Munzele Maimbo & Issa Faye & Thouraya Triki, 2011. "Financing Africa : Through the Crisis and Beyond," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2355, December.
    3. Caterina Giannetti & Nicola Jentzsch, 2011. "Credit Reporting, Access to Finance and Identification Systems: International Evidence," Jena Economics Research Papers 2011-031, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    4. Giannetti, Caterina & Jentzsch, Nicola, 2013. "Credit reporting, financial intermediation and identification systems: International evidence," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 60-80.

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    Keywords

    Access to Finance; Debt Markets; Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress; Microfinance; Economic Theory&Research;
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