Theories rationalizing joint liability lending are rich in implications for repayment rates. We exploit this fact to test four diverse models. We show that the models’ repayment implications do not always coincide. For example, higher correlation of output and borrowers’ ability to act cooperatively can raise or lower repayment, depending on the model. Data from Thai borrowing groups suggest th...

How do borrowers respond to improvements a lender’s ability to punish defaulters? We implemented a randomized field experiment in Malawi examining the impact of fingerprinting of borrowers, which improves the lender’s ability to withhold future loans from individuals who have previously defaulted. Study participants were smallholder farmers applying for agricultural input loans, and were random...

Recent evidence suggests heterogenous impacts of microfinance loans, with limited average effects on enterprise growth among the poor. One possibility is that the rigidity of the classic microcredit contract – widely held to be important for reducing default – inhibits investment in microenterprises. To explore these trade-offs, we provide experimental estimates of the consequences for client r...

This Article reviews the history of sovereign debt restructuring operations with private sector creditors with a view toward diagnosing the factors that lead to inferior outcomes. The Article also attempts to forecast potential problems that may arise in sovereign debt restructuring negotiations in the future and reviews possible modifications of existing institutions. The future potential prob...

Farmers use credit from commercial credit providers to finance production activities. Commercial credit providers have to predict the financial sustainability of the enterprise to ensure that the borrower will have the ability to repay the loan. A Delphi study was conducted to explore what factors are used as indicators of loan-repayment ability of farmers. The objective was not only to identif...

Owing to the agentification of the Government Housing Loan Corporation, Japanese private financial institutions are now developing long-term fixed-rate loans. In order to reduce the risk of yielding mismatches between asset and liability, financial institutions will sell out their loans by securitization instead of holding loans themselves. Mortgage backed security (MBS) is a product of mortgag...

In this paper, we develop a dynamic model for debt repayment behaviors of new customers in the credit card market. We treat customer decisions of whether to be delinquent or not and of how much to pay conditional on deciding not to be delinquent as two separate but possibly correlated decisions and thus view the amount repaid by a delinquent consumer as a censored observation. We assume that th...