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Journal of Financial Intermediation Vol. 19 No. 2 2010

The emergence of information sharing in credit markets

Martin Brown1; Christian Zehnder2

1 Swiss National Bank · 2 University of Lausanne

Abstract

We provide the first systematic empirical analysis of how asymmetric information and competition in the credit market affect voluntary information sharing between lenders. We study an experimental credit market in which information sharing can help lenders to distinguish good borrowers from bad ones. Lenders may, however, also lose market power by sharing information with competitors. Our results suggest that asymmetric information in the credit market increases the frequency of information sharing between lenders significantly. Stronger competition between lenders reduces information sharing. In credit markets where lenders may fail to coordinate on sharing information, the degree of information asymmetry, rather than lender competition, drives actual information sharing behavior.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfi.2009.03.001
Volume
19
Issue
2
Pages
255-278
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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