Doing well while doing good? Gender effects in pro-social peer-to-peer lending

Purpose The 2008 and 2020 crises reinvigorated discussions on the need to deepen financial inclusion through fintech. Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending facilitates pro-social direct lending to less "bankable" strangers while providing returns to at-times less experienced lenders. Information asymmetries and credit risk are substantial, and previous research finds suboptimal heuristics in for-profit lenders (Gonzalez, 2022). This study examines further the role of gender to facilitate "doing well while doing good". Design/methodology/approach This study examines 663 pro-social lending decisions by finance students on a mock P2P site. Testimonials were used to condition participants towards pro-social decision-making. Each participant was asked to make three lending decisions. The three loan applications were identical except for a female or male headshot (vs a control icon), and a randomly assigned difference in the trustworthiness or popularity of the male vs female loan applications among other lenders. Loan popularity is reported as a lower number of days needed to fund half the identical loan amount requested in the three loan applications (3 vs 11 days for headshot applications, and 7 days for control one). Findings Self-recognition in similar-age borrowers is more pronounced for lenders who have experienced financial trauma. Second, male lenders report higher confidence in their financial literacy and cash collateral. Third, cash collateral increases lending only to female borrowers. Fourth, higher perception of one's financial literacy increases confidence only when lending to females. Originality/value This is the first study to examine the role of gender, financial literacy, identification with borrowers, and collateral perception in pro-social P2P lending.