«Fintech Lending and Sales Manipulation»: Dr. Kumar Rishabh and Dr. Jorma Schäublin win the Young Economist Award 2021 of the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics
On every SSES annual meeting since 2007, an award (CHF 2'000) has been granted for the best paper of all authors who are less than 33 years old. SSES Young Economist Award
The SSES Young Economist Award 2021 is presented to Kumar Rishabh (University of Basel) and Jorma Schäublin (University of Basel) for their paper «Fintech Lending and Sales Manipulation».
Abstract
Fintech payment companies acting as lenders possess a potential solution to weak debt enforcement. Their location in the payment chain yields them a senior position in the revenue stream of the borrowing merchant, as the payment company can deduct part of the merchant’s sales it processes to amortize the loan. Our analysis of the transactions processed through a fintech company offering such sales-linked loans suggests that some borrowers discontinuously reduce sales processed through the company immediately after the loan disbursal to strategically default. We find that competition from other lenders and cash limits the effectiveness of this enforcement technology.
JEL Classification: G20, G21, G23
Keywords: Fintech lending, limited enforcement, sales manipulation, regression discontinuity