The Effects of Transactions Costs and Social Distance: Evidence from a Field Experiment Academic Article

abstract

• Abstract We use data from a field experiment at Kiva, the online microfinance platform, to examine the role of transactions costs and social distance in decision-making. Requests for loans are either written in English or another language, and our treatment consists of posting requests in the latter category with or without translation. We find evidence that relatively small transactions costs have a large effect on the share of funding coming from speakers of languages other than that in which the request was written. Social distance plays a smaller role in funding decisions.

authors

• Meer, Jonathan

published proceedings

• B E JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS & POLICY

altmetric score

• 3

author list (cited authors)

• Meer, J., & Rigbi, O.

citation count

• 26

complete list of authors

• Meer, Jonathan||Rigbi, Oren

publication date

• January 2013

publisher

• DE GRUYTER  Publisher

published in

• n1935-1682ISSN  Journal

keywords

• Charitable Giving
• Microfinance
• Social Distance
• Transactions Costs
• Translation

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1515/bejeap-2012-0064

start page

• 271

end page

• 295

volume

• 13

issue

• 1

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2012-0064