Contracts, Collateral and Culture: Gender Effects in Bank Lending

Description

Presentation at seminar of paper co-authored with A. Danzer, C. Hainz, S. Qi: We analyze gender differences in interest rates using unusually rich data on retail loans from a bank in Vietnam—a country where women traditionally make financial decisions. After ruling out gender differences in information, credit risk, and default rates, women pay marginally lower interest rates. The gender gaps differ between loans with and without an exogenous collateralization requirement suggesting that the micro context of loan negotiations matters. In support of the pivotal role of the contracting environment, we exploit historical differences between South and North Vietnam and show that women pay comparably lower rates in the more matriarchal cultural context.

Period	3 May 2022
Held at	University of Münster, Germany
Degree of Recognition	International