An investigation on discrimination by different parties on the microfinance platform : MYC4.com

Online peer-to-peer lending platforms, otherwise known as microfinance, have been growing rapidly. It will be interesting to find out if international investors and local microfinance officers have differing interests in the sustainable development of microfinance. In this paper, we make use of rich...

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Main Authors: Yeo, Hui Qi, Pang, Janica Yanxi, Ong, Justin Hsien Ming
Other Authors: Walter Edgar Theseira
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/48612
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-486122019-12-10T11:48:08Z An investigation on discrimination by different parties on the microfinance platform : MYC4.com Yeo, Hui Qi Pang, Janica Yanxi Ong, Justin Hsien Ming Walter Edgar Theseira School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Social sciences::Economic development::Africa Online peer-to-peer lending platforms, otherwise known as microfinance, have been growing rapidly. It will be interesting to find out if international investors and local microfinance officers have differing interests in the sustainable development of microfinance. In this paper, we make use of rich, individual loan-level data from www.myc4.com, an internet website that facilitates philanthropic cash transfers from individual donors to specific microfinance loan recipients, to examine whether, and what patterns of, discrimination exists based on the choices made by these donors. We exploit detailed information provided on each borrower though objective loan information, pictures and textual descriptions to investigate the determinants of individual charitable giving. Across the specifications, the maximum interest rate that the borrower is willing to accept (“wanted interest rate”) is a crucial consideration for interest rates chargeable. Having classified the characteristics into physical and subjective, we find out that physical characteristics such as physique influences the interest rate paid to investors to increase and darker tone of borrowers‟ skin colour plays a role in the higher interest rates being charged by the providers and administrators. These effects are statistically and quantitatively significant and robust across a variety of specifications. We also investigate on the probability of loan default and if it was affected by the loan characteristics. We find that ultimately, the higher the funded amount, the higher the probability of loan default. Interestingly, borrowers who were assessed more creditworthy have higher probability of loan default. Bachelor of Arts 2012-04-27T06:10:15Z 2012-04-27T06:10:15Z 2012 2012 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/48612 en Nanyang Technological University 56 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Social sciences::Economic development::Africa
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences::Economic development::Africa
Yeo, Hui Qi
Pang, Janica Yanxi
Ong, Justin Hsien Ming
An investigation on discrimination by different parties on the microfinance platform : MYC4.com
description Online peer-to-peer lending platforms, otherwise known as microfinance, have been growing rapidly. It will be interesting to find out if international investors and local microfinance officers have differing interests in the sustainable development of microfinance. In this paper, we make use of rich, individual loan-level data from www.myc4.com, an internet website that facilitates philanthropic cash transfers from individual donors to specific microfinance loan recipients, to examine whether, and what patterns of, discrimination exists based on the choices made by these donors. We exploit detailed information provided on each borrower though objective loan information, pictures and textual descriptions to investigate the determinants of individual charitable giving. Across the specifications, the maximum interest rate that the borrower is willing to accept (“wanted interest rate”) is a crucial consideration for interest rates chargeable. Having classified the characteristics into physical and subjective, we find out that physical characteristics such as physique influences the interest rate paid to investors to increase and darker tone of borrowers‟ skin colour plays a role in the higher interest rates being charged by the providers and administrators. These effects are statistically and quantitatively significant and robust across a variety of specifications. We also investigate on the probability of loan default and if it was affected by the loan characteristics. We find that ultimately, the higher the funded amount, the higher the probability of loan default. Interestingly, borrowers who were assessed more creditworthy have higher probability of loan default.
author2 Walter Edgar Theseira
author_facet Walter Edgar Theseira
Yeo, Hui Qi
Pang, Janica Yanxi
Ong, Justin Hsien Ming
format Final Year Project
author Yeo, Hui Qi
Pang, Janica Yanxi
Ong, Justin Hsien Ming
author_sort Yeo, Hui Qi
title An investigation on discrimination by different parties on the microfinance platform : MYC4.com
title_short An investigation on discrimination by different parties on the microfinance platform : MYC4.com
title_full An investigation on discrimination by different parties on the microfinance platform : MYC4.com
title_fullStr An investigation on discrimination by different parties on the microfinance platform : MYC4.com
title_full_unstemmed An investigation on discrimination by different parties on the microfinance platform : MYC4.com
title_sort investigation on discrimination by different parties on the microfinance platform : myc4.com
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/48612
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