IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/10235.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Give Me a Pass : Flexible Credit for Entrepreneurs in Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Brune,Lasse Florian
  • Gine,Xavier
  • Karlan,Dean S.

Abstract

Microcredit promised business growth for small firms lacking access to banking loans. Although microcredit has reached millions, recent randomized evaluations find limited average business impacts. Critics often blame contract rigidity, specifically the fixed and frequent installments, for the lack of productive risk-taking. But such rigidity may instill borrower discipline. This study partnered with a Colombian lender that offered first-time borrowers a flexible loan that permitted delaying up to three monthly repayments. The study finds 0 effects for revenue and profits but increases in loan defaults. The evidence thus aligns with established microlender practice of offering rigid contracts to first-time borrowers.

Suggested Citation

  • Brune,Lasse Florian & Gine,Xavier & Karlan,Dean S., 2022. "Give Me a Pass : Flexible Credit for Entrepreneurs in Colombia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10235, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10235
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099003411172213782/pdf/IDU1bd441c85136f2148be1b06c160de8e4d3a7e.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ahlin, Christian & Gulesci, Selim & Madestam, Andreas & Stryjan, Miri, 2020. "Loan contract structure and adverse selection: Survey evidence from Uganda," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 180-195.
    2. Erica Field & Rohini Pande & John Papp & Natalia Rigol, 2013. "Does the Classic Microfinance Model Discourage Entrepreneurship among the Poor? Experimental Evidence from India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2196-2226, October.
    3. Emily Breza & Cynthia Kinnan, 2021. "Measuring the Equilibrium Impacts of Credit: Evidence from the Indian Microfinance Crisis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(3), pages 1447-1497.
    4. Dean Karlan & Jonathan Zinman, 2009. "Observing Unobservables: Identifying Information Asymmetries With a Consumer Credit Field Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(6), pages 1993-2008, November.
    5. Bruno Crépon & Florencia Devoto & Esther Duflo & William Parienté, 2015. "Estimating the Impact of Microcredit on Those Who Take It Up: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Morocco," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 123-150, January.
    6. Abhijit Banerjee & Dean Karlan & Jonathan Zinman, 2015. "Six Randomized Evaluations of Microcredit: Introduction and Further Steps," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Marc Labie & Carolina Laureti & Ariane Szafarz, 2017. "Discipline and flexibility: a behavioural perspective on microfinance product design," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(3), pages 321-337, July.
    8. William Jack & Michael Kremer & Joost de Laat & Tavneet Suri, 2023. "Credit Access, Selection, and Incentives in a Market for Asset-Collateralized Loans: Evidence From Kenya," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(6), pages 3153-3185.
    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. Giorgia Barboni, 2024. "Innovations in the repayment structure of microcredit contracts," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 40(1), pages 129-138.

    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. Marianna Battaglia & Selim Gulesci & Andreas Madestam, 2024. "Repayment Flexibility and Risk Taking: Experimental Evidence from Credit Contracts," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(5), pages 2635-2675.
    2. Lori Beaman & Dean Karlan & Bram Thuysbaert & Christopher Udry, 2023. "Selection Into Credit Markets: Evidence From Agriculture in Mali," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(5), pages 1595-1627, September.
    3. Meager, Rachael, 2022. "Aggregating distributional treatment effects: a Bayesian hierarchical analysis of the microcredit literature," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115559, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Jonathan Fu & Annette Krauss, 2024. "Preparing fertile ground: how does the quality of business environments affect MSE growth?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 51-103, June.
    5. Ahlin, Christian & Gulesci, Selim & Madestam, Andreas & Stryjan, Miri, 2020. "Loan contract structure and adverse selection: Survey evidence from Uganda," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 180-195.
    6. Aragón, Fernando M. & Karaivanov, Alexander & Krishnaswamy, Karuna, 2020. "Credit lines in microcredit: Short-term evidence from a randomized controlled trial in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    7. Loeser,John Ashton, 2023. "Consumer Surplus with Incomplete Markets : Applications to Savings and Microfinance," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10481, The World Bank.
    8. Emily Breza & Cynthia Kinnan, 2021. "Measuring the Equilibrium Impacts of Credit: Evidence from the Indian Microfinance Crisis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(3), pages 1447-1497.
    9. Masselus, Lise & Petrik, Christina & Ankel-Peters, Jörg, 2024. "Lost in the Design Space? Construct Validity in the Microfinance Literature," OSF Preprints nwp8k_v1, Center for Open Science.
    10. Czura, Kristina, 2015. "Do flexible repayment schedules improve the impact of microcredit?," Discussion Papers in Economics 26608, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    11. Francisco J. Buera & Joseph P. Kaboski & Yongseok Shin, 2020. "Taking Stock of the Evidence on Microfinancial Interventions," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 102(2), pages 173-202, May.
    12. Oriana Bandiera & Robin Burgess & Erika Deserranno & Ricardo Morel & Imran Rasul & Munshi Sulaiman & Jack Thiemel, 2022. "Microfinance and Diversification," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(S1), pages 239-275, June.
    13. Francisco J. Buera & Joseph P. Kaboski & Yongseok Shin, 2015. "Entrepreneurship and Financial Frictions: A Macrodevelopment Perspective," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 409-436, August.
    14. Masselus, Lise & Petrik, Christina & Ankel-Peters, Jörg, 2024. "Lost in the design space? Construct validity in the microfinance literature," Ruhr Economic Papers 1097, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Dahal, Mahesh & Fiala, Nathan, 2020. "What do we know about the impact of microfinance? The problems of statistical power and precision," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    16. Dahal, Mahesh & Fiala, Nathan, 2018. "What do we know about the impact of microfinance? The problems of power and precision," Ruhr Economic Papers 756, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    17. Gamble, Edward N., 2018. "‘Bang for buck’ in microfinance: Wellbeing mentorship or business education?," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 137-144.
    18. Kristina Czura & Anett John & Lisa Spantig, 2020. "Flexible Contract, Flexible Morale? Microcredit Design and Repayment Discipline," CESifo Working Paper Series 8322, CESifo.
    19. Ernest Liu & Benjamin N. Roth, 2020. "Contractual Restrictions and Debt Traps," Working Papers 2020-30, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    20. Antonia Grohmann & Steffen Herbold & Friederike Lenel, 2020. "Repayment under Flexible Loan Contracts: Evidence from Tanzania," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1884, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • O21 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Planning Models; Planning Policy

    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:wbk:wbrwps:10235. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.