Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This article looks at an institutional innovation in which Western investors lend peer-to-peer to poor country enterprises. Using a unique data set from an online lending platform called MYC4, we find that MYC4's Western lenders grant lower interest rates to pro-poor, socially responsible, and pro-female African projects. Using a novel instrumental variable to account for interest rates' endogeneity, we find that these lower interest rates substantially improve the repayment performance of borrowers and do not reflect profit-maximizing behavior. This new way to organize finance improves credit market efficiency and the success rate of poor country enterprises.