We examine the impact of religious beliefs on loan repayments in 770 microfinance institutions (MFIs) across 65 countries over the period 2006–2018. We find robust evidence of a negative relationship between religiosity and loan losses in MFIs. We also find that the relationship between religiosity and loan losses is stronger for MFIs in Protestant-dominated countries than in Catholic-dominated countries. Moreover, religiosity improves the operational self-sufficiency of MFIs through a reduction in loan losses. We find that religiosity does not improve the loan repayment behaviour of women borrowers, but it reduces the loan size per borrower. Overall, our evidence suggests that although religiosity reduces loan losses through religiosity-induced lender-risk aversion, it does not improve the loan repayment behaviour of borrowers. We also use several approaches to evaluate our results to the effects of endogeneity.

在2006-2018年期间，我们研究了宗教信仰对65个国家/地区的770家小额信贷机构（MFI）偿还贷款的影响。我们发现，小额信贷机构的宗教信仰与贷款损失之间存在负相关关系的有力证据。我们还发现，在以基督教为主的国家，小额信贷机构的宗教信仰与贷款损失之间的关系要强于以天主教为主的国家。此外，宗教信仰通过减少贷款损失提高了小额信贷机构的业务自给自足。我们发现，宗教信仰并不能改善女性借款人的还贷行为，但会减少每个借款人的贷款规模。总体而言，我们的证据表明，尽管宗教活动通过宗教活动引起的贷方风险规避减少了贷款损失，但它并不能改善借款人的还款行为。