Purpose – In the presence of credit rationing the poor are unable to exploit growth-promoting opportunities. Using data gathered from a household survey on North China Plain, the purpose of this paper is to find pervasive rationing in the highly regulated formal credit market in rural China....

Front-line loan officers of microfinance institutions are important in acquiring information on potential borrowers and selecting them in accordance with the microfinance institution's mission. This study uses a unique data set on loan officers and their loan portfolios from China's largest...