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Language

English (en)

Date of Award

5-1-2015

Author's School

College of Arts & Sciences

Author's Department

International and Area Studies

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)

Restricted/Unrestricted

Restricted

Abstract

In this thesis, I analyze the interconnectedness between formal and informal credit markets. I investigate the reasons for the choosing an informal loan from friends and relatives over a formal bank loan in rural China. I also explore the informal loan contract characteristics in relation to social network, information about the rural bank and loan size. My results show that people choose informal loans because they lack the information about bank’s products and services. My findings also indicate there is a limit to informal loan size: informal loans become more formal as they grow in size. Therefore, there is inefficiency in China’s rural credit market since borrowing informally is not a perfect substitute for formal loans.

Mentor

Bruce Peterson

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