We use the introduction of a U.S. commercial credit bureau to study when lenders adopt voluntary information sharing technology and the resulting consequences for competition and credit access. Our results suggest that lenders trade off access to new markets against heightened competition for...

Cyclical systemic risk arises when macro-financial imbalances accumulate over time. Past financial crises which occurred in several countries around the world have shown that heightened cyclical risk can lead to exorbitant economic and financial costs if the appropriate macroprudential policies...

Financial inclusion is strikingly low in emerging economies. In only a few years, financial technologies (fintech) have led to a dramatic expansion in the number of non-traditional credit intermediaries, but the macroeconomic and credit-market implications of this rapid growth of fintech are not...

This paper studies the use of psychometric tests, designed by the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL), as a tool to screen out high credit risk and potentially increase access to credit for small business owners in Peru. We use administrative data covering the period from June 2011 to April 2014...

Bank stability is an important aspect of financial stability, especially in bank-centric systems such as those in Southeast Europe. The financial crisis has shown that there is a particular need to monitor credit and other similar risks. Hence, it is important to analyse risks affecting the...

The last global crisis brought the monetary policy risk-taking channel to the fore, arguing that lingering low interest rates might affect not only the quantity, but the quality of credit extended as well. In line with this debate, this paper is the first effort to empirically investigate the...

This paper investigates a model of strategic interactions in financial networks, where the decision by one agent on whether or not to default impacts the incentives of other agents to escape default. Agents' payoffs are determined by the clearing mechanism introduced in the seminal contribution...

The promotion of an inclusive financial system is considered a policy priority in many countries. While the importance of financial inclusion is widely recognized, the literature lacks a comprehensive measure that can be used to measure the extent of financial inclusion across economies. This...

This working paper provides an overview of the main markets relevant to the EIF, thereby documenting the impact of the current inflationary environment, the war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic on the SME financing environment. The publication first discusses the general market...