The Economic Effects of Sharing Credit Information on Credit Access an Empirical Investigation from 1997 to 2015

The process of decision making when granting credit, depends on reliable information on the creditworthiness and risk structure of potential borrowers. This information is typically gathered by credit bureaus. This paper explores the role and impact of credit information sharing among lenders in the credit market. In doing so, We study the effect of credit information sharing on access to credit using a rich dataset for 30 countries for the period 1997 to 2015. The empirical analysis shows that credit information sharing improves access to credit. The effect is statistically and economically significant.