Purpose – This paper aims to clarify the relationship between wealth and trustworthiness with the goal of understanding why micro-lending institutions grant loans to poor individuals countering well-known models of credit markets and credit rationing, such as those proposed by Stiglitz and...

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of risk rationing among potential rural borrowers in Mexico and China. Design/methodology/approach –Using primary survey data from 730 farm households in the Shaanxi province of China and from 372 farmers in northeastern Mexico,...

Purpose – This paper aims to clarify the relationship between wealth and trustworthiness with the goal of understanding why micro‐lending institutions grant loans to poor individuals countering well‐known models of credit markets and credit rationing, such as those proposed by Stiglitz and...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of risk rationing among potential rural borrowers in Mexico and China. Design/methodology/approach – Using primary survey data from 730 farm households in the Shaanxi province of China and from 372 farmers in northeastern Mexico,...