I analyze 70,000 transactions by retail impact investors on a peer-to-peer lending platform that intermediates loans to firms in low-income countries. Loans pay interest to investors and publicize indicators of expected social impact. Financial returns significantly influence investors’ decisions: a one percentage point increase in the interest rate increases funding speed seven-fold, investment probability two-fold and transaction size by 122 Euro. Expected social impact influences investors’ perception but has no influence (for female empowerment, employees and beneficiaries) or limited influence (for turnover) on investors’ funding decisions. When all available loans pay the same interest rates, female borrowers - but not firms with many employees or beneficiaries - are more likely to be chosen, suggesting that variation in financial returns can crowd out salient dimensions of social impact. The study implies that peer-to-peer lending platforms should function as gatekeepers of social impact and cannot outsource the evaluation of social impact to retail impact investors.

我在 P2P 借贷平台上分析了散户影响力投资者的 70,000 笔交易，该平台将贷款中介给低收入国家的公司。贷款向投资者支付利息并公布预期社会影响的指标。财务回报显着影响投资者的决策：利率每提高 1 个百分点，融资速度将增加七倍，投资概率增加两倍，交易规模增加 122 欧元。预期社会影响会影响投资者的看法，但对投资者的融资决策没有影响（对女性赋权、员工和受益人）或有限影响（对营业额）。当所有可用的贷款支付相同的利率时，女性借款人——但不是拥有许多雇员或受益人的公司——更有可能被选中，表明财务回报的变化可能会排除社会影响的显着方面。该研究表明 P2P 借贷平台应作为社会影响的看门人，不能将社会影响评估外包给散户影响投资者。