Borrower discouragement contributes to reducing access to credit worldwide. In this study,
we examine whether individualism influences the discouragement of borrowers. We used
data on borrower discouragement and individualism at the firm level for a large dataset of
31,000 firms from 57 countries. We find that firms in individualistic countries are less likely to
be discouraged from applying for loans. Furthermore, individualistic norms reduce borrower
discouragement through their impact on lower corruption in lending and weak informal …

Borrower discouragement contributes to reduce access to credit worldwide. In this paper, we
test the hypothesis that individualism influences discouragement of borrowers. We use data
on borrower discouragement and individualism at the firm level for a large dataset of 32,000
firms from 59 countries. We find that firms in individualistic countries are less likely to be
discouraged from applying for loans. We further find that individualistic norms reduce
borrower discouragement through its impact on lower corruption in lending and weak …