Associate Professor Kung-Cheng Ho, a researcher of the Base, has published a collaborative paper titled "Peer effects in the online peer-to-peer lending market: Ex-ante selection and ex-post learning" in International Review of Financial Analysis.

IRFA is a renowned SSCI-indexed journal in the field of international finance, classified as Q1 in JCR rankings, ABS 3-star, and top-tier in the first quartile of economics journals by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for 2023, with an Impact Factor (IF) of 8.2. It ranks 4th out of 111 journals in the business and finance category, and aims to publish high-quality theoretical and empirical research in finance and financial economics.

Abstract: This study investigates peer effects in the online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending market using data from a Chinese online lending platform, Renrendai. The empirical results indicate that both the borrowers' success rate in obtaining loans and the default rate after loans are deemed non-coercive among their peers, referred to as the peer effects of lending and peer effects of default, respectively. The peer effect of lending is more pronounced in high-risk cities, whereas the peer effect of defaulting is more pronounced for borrowers with more difficulty obtaining loans, indicating ex-ante selection and ex-post learning mechanisms, respectively. The peer effects of lending promote P2P lending market efficiency, and the peer effects of defaulting inhibit market efficiency. Collectively, our results suggest that both lenders and borrowers follow peer effects to reduce information asymmetry in P2P lending markets.

Keywords: P2P lending; Peer effect; Ex-ante selection; Ex-post learning; Information asymmetry

Link：https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1057521923005720

Teacher profile

Kung-Cheng Ho, Doctor of Taiwan Yuanzhi University, associate professor of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics. His research interest covers Corporate finance, credit risk management, corporate social responsibility, information asymmetry risk and cross-disciplinary research. His research interest is in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Emerging Markets Review, Energy Economics, International Review of Economics & Finance, International Review of Financial Analysis, Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Forecasting, Pacific-Baisn Finance Journal, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting and other international SSCI journals published more than 40 articles, including 1 ABS 4-star journals, 12 three-star journals and 17 SSCI first-region journals. In addition, he has preached papers in dozens of important academic conferences at home and abroad. Including China Annual Finance Conference, China Annual Financial Engineering Conference, China Annual Management Conference, CICF, American Accounting Association, Asian Finance Association, European Finance Association, Europe Financial Management Association, Financial Management Association, Taiwan Management Institute, Western Economic Association International, etc. In addition, he has reviewed manuscripts for more than 20 journals at home and abroad, including Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Economic Modelling, Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Financial Innovation, Investment Analysts Journal, International Journal of Emerging Markets, International Review of Economics and Finance,  Managerial and Decision Economics, etc.