Bank competition and household informal credit

Jie Lei, Yiyi Bai and Dongmin Kong

International Review of Financial Analysis, 2024, vol. 94, issue C

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between bank competition and informal household credit. Using data from four rounds of the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we find that increased competition among banks significantly reduces households' use of informal credit. To establish causality, we create a quasi-natural experiment based on the relaxation policy for city commercial bank branch expansion and obtain consistent results. We further uncover two mechanisms through which bank competition affects informal credit use: reducing interest rates on formal loans and improving financial literacy among households. Moreover, the heterogeneous analysis shows that higher-income and asset-rich households, as well as those residing in urban areas, are more negatively affected by bank competition in terms of informal credit access, whereas its influence on informal credit in agricultural production and medical expenses for households is not statistically significant. Overall, the results imply that fostering moderate competition in the banking industry can diminish the reliance on informal credit markets and offer a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the banking sector and household credit.

Keywords: Bank competition; Household credit; Informal credit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521924001911
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finana:v:94:y:2024:i:c:s1057521924001911

DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103259

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Financial Analysis is currently edited by B.M. Lucey

More articles in International Review of Financial Analysis from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().