What does not kill us makes us stronger: the story of repetitive consumer loan applications

We investigate borrower and lender behaviours when the borrower has experienced a sequence of failed loan applications. Our analysis is based on half a million observations from an established peer-to-peer (P2P) loan platform in China from 2010 to 2018. We find that borrowers who have better credit scores and who accept to pay higher interest rates are likely to reapply for funds after experiencing an earlier failed attempt. However, women and applicants with more education are discouraged from re-applying compared to their male or less-educated counterparts, respectively. On the funding supply side, lenders strive to fund safe borrowers who have high credit ratings and high income, though not those who offer a high interest rate.