IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/97015.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Anti-Corruption Reforms and Microfinancing: Evidence from Households' Fintech Borrowing

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Yifei

Abstract

Despite a surging literature in investigating different impacts of corruption and/or anti-corruption from firms’ perspective, it is still unclear whether and how corruption and/or anti-corruption affect households’ borrowing behaviour. In this paper, we focus on a Chinese online peer-to-peer lending market and analyse the impact of the recent China’s anti-corruption campaign on households’ borrowing costs. We employ a Difference-in-Differences (DID) estimation strategy and investigate three exogenous shocks regarding the movement: 1) the 2012 Eight Point Policy announcement; 2) multiple rounds of the Central Inspection Team Campaigns during 2013 and 2014; 3) and the anti-corruption rules for military-related personnel in early 2015. Our results show that equilibrium interest rates of borrowers pertaining to Non-SOEs dropped significantly comparing to that of SOEs and/or government agencies in the wake of the first two events. Borrowers affiliating with military-related institutions were also worsened after the military specific anti-corruption campaign. Finally, we examine the two possible economic channels. Suggestive evidences show that both a rise of interest risk premium for SOEs borrowers and a better outlook of Non-SOEs after the anti-corruption reform could account for the observed favour of the borrowing costs towards Non-SOEs borrowers. These findings are consistent with previous studies regarding the effects of anti-corruptions from firms’ aspects such as Lin et al., (2016) and Griffin et al., (2016). This study also complements the P2P literature by demonstrating the importance of online borrowers’ occupations / job affiliations.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Yifei, 2019. "Anti-Corruption Reforms and Microfinancing: Evidence from Households' Fintech Borrowing," MPRA Paper 97015, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:97015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/97015/1/MPRA_paper_97015.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cao, Xiaping & Wang, Yuchen & Zhou, Sili, 2018. "Anti-corruption campaigns and corporate information release in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 186-203.
    2. Hunt, Jennifer & Laszlo, Sonia, 2005. "Bribery: Who Pays, Who Refuses, What are the Payoffs?," CEPR Discussion Papers 5251, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Alexander W. Butler & Larry Fauver & Sandra Mortal, 2009. "Corruption, Political Connections, and Municipal Finance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(7), pages 2673-2705, July.
    4. Haoyuan Ding & Hanming Fang & Shu Lin & Kang Shi, 2020. "Equilibrium Consequences of Corruption on Firms: Evidence from China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign," NBER Working Papers 26656, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Fisman, Raymond & Svensson, Jakob, 2007. "Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 63-75, May.
    6. Chen, Xin & Qin, Yaohua & Xiao, He & Zhang, Yifei, 2019. "Microfinancing and Home-purchase Restrictions: Evidence from the Online “Peer-to-Peer” Lending in China," MPRA Paper 95375, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Kong, Dongmin & Wang, Li & Wang, Maobin, 2017. "Effects of anti-corruption on firm performance: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 190-195.
    8. Gan, Weiyu & Xu, Xixiong, 2019. "Does anti-corruption campaign promote corporate R&D investment? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 292-296.
    9. Giannetti, Mariassunta & Yu, Xiaoyun & Liao, Guanmin & You, Jiaxing, 2017. "The Externalities of Corruption: Evidence from Entrepreneurial Activity in China," CEPR Discussion Papers 12345, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    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. Guo, Jing & Wang, Yanan & Yang, Wei, 2021. "China's anti-corruption shock and resource reallocation in the energy industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    2. Kong, Dongmin & Tao, Yunqing & Wang, Yanan, 2020. "China's anti-corruption campaign and firm productivity: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. Li, Guangzi & Chan, Kam C., 2021. "Anti-corruption intensity and loan contracting: Evidence from non-state owned firms in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    4. Boubaker, Sabri & Liu, Pei-Zhi & Ren, Yi-Shuai & Ma, Chao-Qun, 2024. "Do anti-corruption campaigns affect corporate environmental responsibility? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    5. Yang, Hao & Zhang, Qiusheng & Zhao, Xiaofang & Wang, Zhongchao, 2022. "Does political corruption affect mergers and acquisitions decisions? Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 248-266.
    6. Tao, Miaomiao & Dagestani, Abd Alwahed & Goh, Lim Thye & Zheng, Yuhang & Le, Wen, 2023. "Do China's anti-corruption efforts improve corporate productivity? A difference-in-difference exploration of Chinese listed enterprises," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    7. Khanh Hoang & Hieu T. Doan & Thanh T. Tran & Thang X. Nguyen & Anh Q. Le, 2022. "Anti-Corruption Campaign and Firm Financial Performance: Evidence From Vietnam Firms," Evaluation Review, , vol. 46(2), pages 103-137, April.
    8. Kong, Dongmin & Zhu, Ling & Wang, Xin, 2022. "Anti-corruption and CEO compensation: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    9. Wu, Jiamei & Chen, Zhibin & Guo, Chong, 2022. "How does anti-corruption affect green innovation? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 405-424.
    10. Lahiri, Bidisha & Ali, Haider, 2022. "Inspections, informal payments and tax payments by firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    11. Cai, Weixing & Hu, Feng & Xu, Fangming & Zheng, Liyi, 2022. "Anti-corruption campaign and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    12. Colonnelli, Emanuele & Lagaras, Spyridon & Ponticelli, Jacopo & Prem, Mounu & Tsoutsoura, Margarita, 2022. "Revealing corruption: Firm and worker level evidence from Brazil," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1097-1119.
    13. Jain, Pankaj K. & Kuvvet, Emre & Pagano, Michael S., 2017. "Corruption’s impact on foreign portfolio investment," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 23-35.
    14. Kong, Dongmin & Shu, Yijia & Wang, Yanan, 2021. "Corruption and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China⋆," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    15. Xuejun Jiang & Louise Lu, 2021. "How do US investors perceive the risk of local political corruption? Evidence from acquisition announcement," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 885-912, March.
    16. Lu, Jiankun & Zhang, Hongsheng & Meng, Bo, 2021. "Corruption, firm productivity, and gains from import liberalization in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    17. Li, Nian & Xu, Nianhang & Dong, Rui & Chan, Kam C. & Lin, Xiaowei, 2021. "Does an anti-corruption campaign increase analyst earnings forecast optimism?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    18. Apergis, Emmanuel & Apergis, Nicholas, 2017. "US political corruption: Identifying the channels of bribes for firms' financial policies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 87-94.
    19. Nguyen, Hieu Quang, 2023. "Corruption, political connection, and firm investments," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    20. Cheng, Maoyong & Geng, Hongyan, 2021. "Do local firms employ political activities to respond to political uncertainty?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Peer-to-Peer Crowdfunding; Corruption; Household Debt;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:97015. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.