We draw on the phenomenon of caste-based discrimination in India and signaling theory to assess whether microfinance credit scores improve the odds of female micropreneurs from a lower caste receiving loans and whether visible business characteristics further improve the odds of receiving microfinance loans. In a sample of 3,144 female microfinance loan applicants at a female-focused microloan enterprise in India, females from a lower caste, relative to those from a higher caste, have lower odds of receiving loans when their credit scores are below the mean. However, when females from a lower caste have credit scores higher than the mean, the odds of receiving a loan increase. The practical effect of size is small but meaningful. Loan applicants from a lower caste with a visible signal of business ability do not improve their chances of receiving a loan relative to those from a higher caste.

我们利用印度基于种姓的歧视现象和信号理论，来评估小额信贷额度是否提高了接受贷款的较低种姓的女性小企业的几率，以及可见的商业特征是否进一步提高了获得小额信贷的几率。在印度一家以女性为重点的小额贷款企业的3144名女性小额贷款申请人中，来自低种姓的女性相对于那些拥有较高种姓的女性，其信用评分低于平均值时，获得贷款的几率较低。但是，当等级较低的女性的信用评分高于平均水平时，获得贷款的几率就会增加。大小的实际影响很小但有意义。