Date: Jan 25, 2023

Title: Willingness to Pay for Credit (Early-stage study)

Presenter: Shashwat Alok, Assistant Professor, ISB

Abstract: We provide the first large sample evidence of borrowers’ willingness to pay for credit (interest rate) using a unique fintech app based in the USA. The lender in our study grants short-term cash advances but does not charge any interest. Instead, borrowers can voluntarily tip any amount. Borrowers can also receive immediate cash by incurring fees. We find that 37% of the borrowers choose to tip even though tipping is optional. Tipping is uncorrelated with the likelihood of cash advance approval. The inferred APR conditional on tipping is a staggering 730%. We aim to advance the policy debate on interest charged by “predatory lenders.”  Our study suggests that high APRs observed in the real world need not necessarily reflect predatory practices. Instead, it may reflect the opportunity cost of access to credit. Liquidity-Constrained Borrowers willingly incur fees to expedite cash disbursal. Cognitive ability cannot completely explain tipping behavior, suggesting some role of gratitude/reciprocity.

Date: Jan 18, 2023

Title: Who cares about the metaverse? 

Presenter: Vandith Pamuru, Assistant Professor, ISB

The link to a video to discuss the research directions is: https://youtu.be/CqkhjL3WvWQ

In addition to this, he will briefly talk about https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/isre.2021.1004 which considers one of the direction of research with respect to Metaverse.  

Date: Jan 11, 2023

Title:  Are scientific papers becoming less disruptive?

Presenter: Madhu Viswanathan,  Associate Professor, ISB

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/01/04/papers-and-patents-are-becoming-less-disruptive

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05543-x