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Expanding Credit Access: Using Randomized Supply Decisions To Estimate the Impacts

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Author Info
Karlan, Dean S.
Zinman, Jonathan

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Abstract

Expanding credit access is a key ingredient of development strategies worldwide. Microfinance practitioners, policymakers, and donors have ambitious goals for expanding access, and seek efficient methods for implementing and evaluating expansion. There is less consensus on the role of consumer credit in expansion initiatives. Some microfinance institutions are moving beyond entrepreneurial credit and offering consumer loans. But many practitioners and policymakers are skeptical about “unproductive” lending. These concerns are fueled by academic work highlighting behavioural biases that may induce consumers to overborrow. We estimate the impacts of a consumer credit supply expansion using a field experiment and follow-up data collection. A South African lender relaxed its risk assessment criteria by randomly approving some marginal applications it normally would have rejected. We estimate the resulting impacts using new survey data on borrower behaviour and well-being, and administrative data on loan repayment. We find that the marginal loans produced measurable benefits in the form of increased employment, reduced hunger, and reduced poverty. The marginal loans also appear to have been profitable for the lender. The results must be interpreted with caution but suggest that consumer credit expansions can be welfare-improving.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 6180.

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Date of creation: Mar 2007
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6180

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Keywords: loans;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Ashraf, Nava & Karlan, Dean S. & Yin, Wesley, 2007. "Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines," CEPR Discussion Papers 6195, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Beck, Thorsten, 2008. "The econometrics of finance and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4608, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  3. Scott Carrell & Jonathan Zinman, 2008. "In harm’s way? Payday loan access and military personnel performance," Working Papers 08-18, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
  4. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2008. "The Experimental Approach to Development Economics," NBER Working Papers 14467, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Karlan, Dean S. & Zinman, Jonathan, 2007. "Credit Elasticities in Less-Developed Economies: Implications for Microfinance," CEPR Discussion Papers 6071, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Daniel Clarke & Sefan Dercon, 2009. "Insurance, Credit and Safety Nets for the Poor in a World of Risk," Working Papers 81, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs. [Downloadable!]
  7. Cull, Robert & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Morduch, Jonathan, 2008. "Microfinance meets the market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4630, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Jonathan Zinman, 2008. "Restricting consumer credit access: household survey evidence on effects around the Oregon rate cap," Working Papers 08-32, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
  9. Steven D. Levitt & John A. List, 2008. "Field Experiments in Economics: The Past, The Present, and The Future," NBER Working Papers 14356, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Bruhn, Miriam & Love, Inessa, 2009. "The economic impact of banking the unbanked : evidence from Mexico," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4981, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  11. Boucher, Steve & Guirkinger, Catherine & Trivelli, Carolina, 2006. "Direct Elicitation of Credit Constraints: Conceptual and Practical Issues with an Empirical Application to Peruvian Agriculture," Working Papers 6883, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. [Downloadable!]
  12. Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther, 2008. "The Experimental Approach to Development Economics," CEPR Discussion Papers 7037, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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