Social Connectedness in Bank Lending
研究发现银行与借款人所在地区之间的社会关联越强，贷款发放越多、条款对借款人更友好、贷款表现更好，且能提升银行利润和区域经济增长，有助于理解地理贷款模式和区域经济差异。
Abstract We present evidence that loan allocations and loan terms are closely linked to the strength of social connections between bank and borrower regions. Lending increases with social connectedness, particularly in the presence of strong screening incentives. If connectedness is high, banks discriminate between borrowers more, the terms of originated loans are more borrower friendly, and loan performance is better. Furthermore, social connectedness is associated with higher bank profitability and with lending-related increases in borrower-region GDP growth and employment. Our results suggest that lending barriers decrease with social connectedness, which helps our understanding of geographic lending patterns and regional economic disparities.