Information Technology and Credit: Evidence from Public Guarantees
研究了银行信息技术能否替代本地分支机构在中小企业信贷中的作用，利用意大利疫情期间公共担保计划的贷款数据，发现信息技术部分缓解了分支机构缺失的影响，但贷款仍具本地性。
This paper investigates whether banks’ information technology (IT) can substitute for local branch presence in the provision of small business credit. Our identification strategy relies on loan-level data and the unique institutional features of the Italian public guarantee scheme during COVID-19. Despite the availability of online applications and low screening incentives, small business lending remains local even for first-time borrowers. However, IT partly mitigates the impact of local branch presence: banks with better IT provide more, cheaper, and faster guaranteed loans and lend more in areas where they have no bank branches, especially to first-time borrowers. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4957 .