Screening on Loan Terms: Evidence from Maturity Choice in Consumer Credit

55 Pages Posted: 5 Feb 2018 Last revised: 29 Apr 2020

See all articles by Andrew Hertzberg

Andrew Hertzberg

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Andres Liberman

Betterfly

Daniel Paravisini

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: 2018-01-31

Abstract

We exploit a natural experiment in the largest online consumer lending platform to provide the first evidence that loan terms, in particular maturity choice, can be used to screen borrowers based on their private information. We compare two groups of observationally equivalent borrowers who took identical unsecured 36-month loans; for only one of the groups, a 60-month loan was also available. When a long-maturity option is available, fewer borrowers take the short-term loan, and those who do default less. Additional findings suggest borrowers self-select on private information about their future ability to repay.

Keywords: Screening, Adverse Selection, Loan Maturity, Consumer Credit

JEL Classification: D14, D82

Suggested Citation

Hertzberg, Andrew and Liberman, Andres and Paravisini, Daniel, Screening on Loan Terms: Evidence from Maturity Choice in Consumer Credit (2018-01-31). FRB of Philadelphia Working Paper No. 18-5, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3116701 or http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21799/frbp.wp.2018.05

Andrew Hertzberg (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia ( email )

Ten Independence Mall
Philadelphia, PA 19106-1574
United States

Andres Liberman

Betterfly ( email )

Santiago
Chile

Daniel Paravisini

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

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