Peer-to-peer lending platforms are increasingly important alternatives to traditional forms of credit intermediation for small value loans. There are high hopes that they improve financial inclusion and provide better terms for borrowers. To study these hopes, we introduce altruistic investors into a peer-to-peer model of credit intermediation. We find that altruistic investors do not improve financial inclusion but that the borrowing rates are lower than the ones obtained with self-interested investors. Furthermore, investors with strong altruistic preferences are willing to finance projects which generate an expected loss to them. For a certain range of parameters, the model's allocation is observationally equivalent to a model with self-interested investors with low bargaining power. Outside of this range, the model generates allocations that are not incentive feasible in a model with self-interested investors.

中文翻译：

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与利他投资者的点对点借贷和金融包容性

对等借贷平台是小额贷款传统信贷中介形式的日益重要的替代品。人们寄希望于它们改善金融包容性并为借款人提供更好的条件。为了研究这些希望，我们将利他投资者引入信用中介的点对点模型中。我们发现利他投资者并没有提高金融包容性，但借款利率低于自利投资者的借款利率。此外，具有强烈利他偏好的投资者愿意为可能给他们带来预期损失的项目提供资金。对于一定范围的参数，模型的配置在观察上等同于具有低议价能力的自利投资者的模型。在这个范围之外，