【主讲】Yan Chen (University of Michigan)
【主题】Team Competition in Online Microfinance: A Field Experiment on Kiva
【时间】2013年7月25日 (周四) 13：30-15：00
【地点】上海财经大学经济学院楼701室
【语言】英文
【摘要】We investigate the effects of lending team competition on pro-social lending on Kiva.org, the first peer-to-peer microlending website which matches citizen lenders with entrepreneurs in developing countries. Using naturally occurring field data, we find that lenders who join teams make on average 1.2 more loans per month than their counterparts who do not join teams, which translates to at least $30 per month. Meanwhile, we also observe considerable heterogeneity among teams: 43% of the lending teams have not made a single loan, whereas 77% of open teams in our random sample have no forum message in the past twelve months. To investigate factors which make some teams more effective, we run a field experiment by posting messages to team forums. We find that, compared to the control, lenders who are members of inactive teams make significantly more loans a month when shown a message that sets a lending goal for the team or that sets a lending goal and points to a borrower url. Our findings indicate that goal setting, and goal setting combined with team coordination, are both effective mechanisms that increase pro-social lending for inactive teams.
