Is Digital Credit Filling a Hole or Digging a Hole? Evidence from Malawi /
Digital credit has expanded rapidly in Africa, mostly in the form of short-term, high-interest loans offered via mobile money. Loan terms are often opaque and consumer financial literacy is low, providing opportunities for predatory lending. A regression discontinuity analysis shows no negative effe...
Gespeichert in:
- 1. Verfasser:
- Körperschaft:
- Weitere Verfasser:
- ,
- Format:
- Elektronisch E-Book
- Sprache:
- Englisch
- Veröffentlicht:
-
Cambridge, Mass.
National Bureau of Economic Research
2021.
- Zusammenfassung:
-
Digital credit has expanded rapidly in Africa, mostly in the form of short-term, high-interest loans offered via mobile money. Loan terms are often opaque and consumer financial literacy is low, providing opportunities for predatory lending. A regression discontinuity analysis shows no negative effect of access to digital loans on financial well-being, but the majority of borrowers fail to repay on time and incur high late fees. We randomize exposure to a short phone-based financial literacy intervention. The intervention improved knowledge and marginally improved loan repayment but increased loan demand, increasing overall default risk.
- Umfang:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Anmerkungen:
- December 2021.
- Schlagworte: