Do small businesses avoid the bank, or do loan officers refuse to lend (Public) ($)
General Details
Project Do small businesses avoid the bank, or do loan officers refuse to lend?Study ID sspp-2026-0031-v1
Study Title Do small businesses avoid the bank, or do loan officers refuse to lend
Authors Emma Zhang
Completion Time 15 Minutes
Close Date (UTC) Oct. 1, 2026
Discipline Economics
Field Development Economics
Country Pakistan
Abstract
Improving small-business access to bank loans is often cited as a way of accelerating economic growth. Even though government subsidies for small business loans exist in over 100 low and middle-income countries, very few businesses apply. We investigate how small-business managers interact with bank loan officers, who gate-keep the loan application process, by running a series of field experiments in Pakistan. Participate in our expert survey to predict the points where the firms struggled to overcome search and negotiation frictions with the bank!
Incentive Details
Incentive Type Based on forecast accuracyCalculation Method
Recipient Pool Incentives are lottery-based
Lottery Percentage 1.0%
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