Publications

2024
Working Paper

Loan Officers Impede Graduation From Microcredit: Evidence from a Large Microfinance Institution

By: Natalia Rigol and Benjamin N. Roth

Graduating microcredit borrowers to larger loans can increase livelihoods. We demonstrate that loan officers impede borrower graduation due to common features of their compensation. Through an experiment with one of Chile’s largest microfinance institutions (MFIs), we... View Details

Keywords: Loan Officers; Strategic Behavior; Strategic Disclosure; Microfinance; Financial Institutions; Financing and Loans

2025
Working Paper

Unwinding Loan Prospecting Pressure Through Renegotiation: The Role of Loan Officer Changes in Debt Contracting

By: Jung Koo Kang, Regina Wittenberg Moerman and Jessie Cheong

We examine the impact of loan officer changes on debt contract design. Loan officers play a critical role in initiating and maintaining lending relationships but also face pressure to originate more loans, incentivizing them to offer loan terms more favorable than... View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Borrowing and Debt; Contracts; Negotiation; Motivation and Incentives

30 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking: Evidence from an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers

Keywords: by Shawn Cole, Martin Kanz & Leora Klapper

April 2015
Article

Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking: Evidence from an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers

By: Shawn Cole, Martin Kanz and Leora Klapper

This paper uses a series of experiments with commercial bank loan officers to test the effect of performance incentives on risk assessment and lending decisions. We first show that while high-powered incentives lead to greater screening effort and more profitable... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Management Processes; Credit Products; Experimental Economics; Risk Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Financing and Loans; Banking Industry

This paper uses a series of experiments with commercial bank loan officers to test the effect of performance incentives on risk-assessment and lending decisions. We first show that, while high-powered incentives lead to greater screening effort and more... View Details

27 Aug 2012
News

Incentivizing Calculated Risk-Taking: an Experiment with Commercial Bank Loan Officers

03 Apr 2013
News

Need A Business Loan? Impress The Algorithm, Not The Loan Officer

Keywords: Credit Intermediation and Related Activities; Finance

Article

Credit and Punishment: Are Corporate Bankers Disciplined for Risk-Taking?

By: Janet Gao, Kristoph Kleiner and Joseph Pacelli

We examine whether bankers face disciplining consequences for structuring poorly performing corporate loans. We construct a novel data set containing the employment histories and loan portfolios of a large sample of corporate bankers and find that corporate credit... View Details

Keywords: Syndicated Loans; Credit Events; Career Outcomes; Loan Officers; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Risk Management; Corporate Finance; Personal Development and Career

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Web

Loan Reduction - Entrepreneurship

to support students who were determined by the Financial Aid Office to have demonstrated need during enrollment at HBS and who have filed financial aid applications while at HBS. HOW IT WORKS The Rock Loan... View Details

01 Feb 2021
Blog Post

Choosing the Right Student Loan

you. For instance, the Harvard University Employee Credit Union offers a program called GreenPath Financial Wellness which provides one-on-one student loan counseling. And, of course, the Financial Aid View Details

November–December 2019
Article

Making Sense of Soft Information: Interpretation Bias and Loan Quality

By: Dennis Campbell, Maria Loumioti and Regina Wittenberg Moerman

We explore whether behavioral biases impede the effective processing and interpretation of soft information in private lending. Taking advantage of the internal reporting system of a large federal credit union, we delineate three important biases likely to affect the... View Details

Keywords: Soft Information; Lending; Banking; Information; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; Decision Making

Web

Loan Assistance Programs - Alumni

You may not increase your student loan debt after applying for an award. Please note that loans offered as employer sponsorships are ineligible for all the HBS loan reduction... View Details

29 Jan 2021
Blog Post

My HBS Student Loan Story: John Cortines (MBA 2015)

Business school is a valuable investment in your future. HBS supports that investment through generous need-based scholarships. In addition to scholarships, many HBS students utilize student loans to help meet their portion of the shared... View Details

01 Sep 2016
News

The Big Business of Little Loans

Ensuring that quality, Teo says, means focusing not only on growing fast but also on growing well. For Funding Societies, that means a borrower must have at least $250,000 in revenue and meet with a loan View Details

Keywords: Nancy Miller

13 Apr 2017
News

The reason your loan application is rejected may have nothing to do with your credit score

Web

Choosing the Right Student Loan | MBA

And, of course, the Financial Aid Office is always here to help! Author : Katie Kelsall Topics: Financial Aid Student Loans The views and opinions expressed in the MBA Voices blog are those of the authors.... View Details

Web

Loan Assistance | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Financial Aid Office and the Social Enterprise Initiative. All determinations made by the School and the Selection Committee are final. The School and the Selection Committee reserve the right to restructure or discontinue the Program as... View Details

April 2023
Case

Burning the Sails to Save the Ship: The Pilati Family Dilemma

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Jiawei Ye and Grace Headinger

Octavian Graf Pilati, rising generation member of an Austrian princely family, prepared to sell the palace his family had held for over three hundred years. In recent years, the Pilati family lands had been leveraged as loan collateral for an international venture that... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Family; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Agribusiness; Family Business; Property; Identity; Culture; Ethics; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governance; Crisis Management; Family and Family Relationships; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Real Estate Industry; Austria