TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Leong, Kaiwen
AU  - Li, Huailu
AU  - Xu, Haibo
        TI  - Exploiting the Unbanked: Evidence from Singapore's Unlicensed Moneylending Market
        PY  - 2018/Aug/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11786
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp11786
        AB  - Using a unique dataset covering the borrowing behaviour of over a thousand borrowers, we study the unlicensed moneylending market in Singapore. In this market, borrowers search for lenders, and lenders decide how much profit to extract from borrowers. Lenders harass borrowers into compliance. We observe that different lenders apply different markups on different borrowers. Higher markups discourage borrowers from repeatedly borrowing from a particular lender. Increased enforcement specifically targeted at reducing the number of lenders in this market will increase markups, but will not deter borrowers from becoming recurrent borrowers because they have fewer lenders to choose from.
        KW  - illegal lending
KW  - enforcement
KW  - markup
        ER  -