Lending to the Unbanked: Relational Contracting with Loan Sharks
34 Pages Posted: 30 Oct 2019 Last revised: 19 Feb 2022
There are 2 versions of this paper
Lending to the Unbanked: Relational Contracting with Loan Sharks
Date Written: October 2019
Abstract
We study roughly 11,000 loans from unlicensed moneylenders to over 1,000 borrowers in Singapore and provide basic information about this understudied market. Borrowers frequently expect to repay late. While lenders do rely on additional punishments to enforce loans, the primary cost of not repaying on time is compounding of a very high interest rate. We develop a very simple model of the relational contract between loan sharks and borrowers and use it to predict the effect of a crackdown on illegal moneylending. Consistent with our model, the crackdown raised the interest rate and lowered the size of loans.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation