Abstract

Online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending has developed fast around the world in recent years; however, studies regarding gender discrimination and its rationality for developing countries are limited. Gender discrimination towards borrowers and its rationality in P2P lending in China are studied in this paper. Using data collected from PPdai.com, one of the largest P2P lending platforms in China, we found that, female borrowers are less likely to be funded than male borrowers, but their default rates are lower. Such results suggested that there is significant gender discrimination in P2P lending market in China, but such discrimination is out of prejudice rather than from rational reasoning. Eliminating such gender discrimination is not only beneficial to female borrowers, but also helpful for improving returns of lenders.

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