Credit rationing, interest rates and capital accumulation

A simple endogenous growth model is developed to characterize credit rationing through the capital accumulation process. The model shows that credit rationing on investment loans decreases as capital accumulates and the enforcement cost decreases. We find that the evolution of the interest rate factor (lending interest rate/depositing interest rate) has a similar pattern to the credit rationing probability. However, simulations show that the evolution of the interest rate spread through the capital accumulation process depends on the degree of the enforcement cost. In the empirical part of the paper, we consider fifty-two countries, at different stages of development, over the period 1995–2005. We confirm the theoretical findings relative to the evolution of the interest rate spread and interest rate factor with capital accumulation. These results suggest that, for economies endowed with costly contract enforcement, the interest rate factor could be a better proxy of credit rationing than the interest rate spread.     

Collateral secured loans in a monetary economy

This paper presents a microfounded model of money where durable assets serve as a guarantee to repay consumption loans. We study a steady state equilibrium where money and credit coexist. In such an equilibrium, a larger investment in durable capital relaxes the borrowing constraint faced by consumers. We show that the occurrence of over-investment and the behavior of capital accumulation depend on the rate of inflation, the relative risk aversion of agents and the marginal productivity of the capital goods.     

Capital income taxation in a growing world economy

This paper deals with dynamic adjustment in large economies to changes in the rate of capital income taxation or in the rate of investment tax credit in one country. The framework applied in the paper is a continuous-time, overlapping generations model with two countries. It features population growth and debt non-neutrality. We address impact and steady state effects of capital income tax and investment subsidy changes in the home country on consumption per capita, the capital intensity, and the per capita net foreign asset position in both countries. We also briefly consider individual welfare consequences of these policies.     

商业银行信贷配给对中国房地产业波动的影响*

商业银行信贷配给控制中国房地产业信贷规模和结构,造成供给和需求的规模与结构扭曲,影响货币政策和财政政策的调控效果,容易引起房地产业波动。本文通过构建信贷配给模型,测算不同波动时期当中,商业银行信贷配给程度的变化趋势,以及对房地产业的影响。实证结果显示,信贷配给程度的变化与房地产业波动显著相关,信贷配给改变了投资和消费在推动房地产产出过程中的结构,并制约路径依赖对产出的影响,同时影响财政政策和数量型货币政策稳定房地产业的效果。本文认为,可以通过逐渐弱化商业银行在房地产金融市场中的垄断地位,丰富房地产信贷供给层次和结构,以及加强信贷供给监督来缓解信贷配给的消极作用。     

A Theoretical Model of Financial Crisis

The paper develops a new model of private debt financing with an inefficient financial system at its core, where inefficiency is characterized by costly loan monitoring. The model suggests a mechanism that generates the following series of events: a period of low capital inflow despite high rates of economic growth (capital inflow inertia), as observed in the take-off era in the Asian tiger economies; followed by a sudden acceleration of capital inflow (as seen in the 1990s); and then by a crisis, which is defined as a large reduction in the amount of loans intermediated by the financial system (i.e., a large capital outflow or credit crunch). Under certain conditions, financial crisis can occur even when economic fundamentals and market sentiment change only slightly. Unlike most credit rationing models, the results presented here do not hinge on the assumption of asymmetric information. The model also provides guidance about the appropriate policy responses to an imminent crisis.     

The Significance of Credit Rationing on Real Investment Activity – A Test for the Significance of Capital-Market Imperfection in Japan

Does bank credit matter to the real investment finance of firms? If so, to what kind of firms does it matter, and why? Despite the progress of research in this field, there is still little empirical consensus on these problems. This paper contributes to the understanding of capital-market imperfection in Japan by answering these questions. I introduce new methods to test the significance of credit rationing and show that bank credit is indeed a very important determinant of real investment activity of small firms. The availability of long-term loans has particularly significant effects on the investment opportunities of small firms, although large firms with capital of more than 1 billion yen are free from credit rationing. JEL Classification Numbers: C51, E44, G21.     

Bank structure, capital accumulation and growth: a simple macroeconomic model

Summary. This paper analyzes the equilibrium growth paths of two economies that are identical in all respects, except for the organization of their financial systems: in particular, one has a competitive banking system and the other has a monopolistic banking system. In addition, the sources of inefficiencies, as a result of monopoly banking, and their relationship to the existence of credit rationing are explored. Monopoly in banking tends to depress the equilibrium law of motion for the capital stock for either of two reasons. When credit rationing exists, monopoly banks ration credit more heavily than competitive banks. When credit is not rationed, the existence of monopoly banking leads to excessive monitoring of credit financed investment. Both of these have adverse consequences for capital accumulation. In addition, monopoly banking is more likely to lead to credit rationing than is competitive banking. Finally, the scope for development trap phenomena to arise is considered under both a competitive and a monopolistic banking system. Received: September 20, 1999; revised version: December 3, 1999     

Financing difficulties for SMEs and credit rationing – an expanded model of mortgage loans with asymmetric information

This article presents a new model of mortgage loans under reasonable assumptions. A several key variables that affects the success of a project, such as project risk, total investment, lending rate,mortgage, and self-financing are jointly considered in the model. The model takes the participation constraints and the incentive compatibility constraints into account for enterprises and banks on project investment actions respectively. Our model can explain the coexistence scenario of small medium enterprises’ (SMEs) financing difficulties and credit rationing in credit markets with asymmetric information. It reveals that higher enterprise self-financing for the project is a “credible factor” to the bank. Banks put forward strict requirements on mortgage for the SMEs with low proportion of project self-financing, which will lead to two scenarios:one is that some SMEs would not get loans due to insufficient mortgage assets; other is that some SMEs will voluntarily give up loans because of loan requirements, even if they have enough mortgage assets. Rationing is implemented both to large enterprises and SMEs, but the degree of rationing is gradually strengthened with the reduction of self-financing scale for the project.     

Foreign aid and government fiscal behaviour in low-income South Asian countries

The major purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between foreign aid and government fiscal behaviour using a pooled sample of three low-income South Asian countries: Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. A simultaneous equation system was developed and estimated using nonlinear three-stage least squares procedure. The results confirm the hypothesis that foreign aid affects both the expenditure and the revenue side of the recipient government budgets. Both grants and loans are used for consumption as well as for investment purposes. However, grants leak into consumption more than loans. Thus, if the purpose of aid is to generate investment, it is more helpful if donors extend loans to the developing countries than by giving grants. The results also indicate that both grants and loans increase the taxation effort. Multilateral aid actually pulls resources out of consumption and places them into investment projects. Thus the results confirm the assertion that a shift from bilateral to multilateral aid will induce a greater increase in investment. This could stem from better economic performance resulting from high-conditionality lending associated with aid from the major multilateral agencies.     

Restoring Macroeconomic Stability through Fiscal Adjustment: a Real–Financial CGE Analysis for India

Developing‐country attempts to regain macroeconomic stability through fiscal adjustment are often unsuccessful in reducing inflation and balance‐of‐payments (BoP) disequilibrium. This paper examines why this may be so in the light of India's experience with stabilization in response to the BoP crisis in 1991. It does so using a novel real–financial computable general‐equilibrium model. Focusing on credit rather than money, the model goes beyond earlier modeling approaches by (1) incorporating credit rationing, (2) recognizing the dual role of credit for working capital and investment, and (3) allowing for switches between credit‐constrained, capacity‐constrained, and demand‐constrained, regimes. The simulations indicate that the macroeconomic effects of monetized deficit reduction differ widely depending on the mode of financing and on initial conditions in real and financial markets. Whenever fiscal reform leads to a squeeze on available working capital credit, deficit reduction will lead to only a limited inflation decline and a modest BoP improvement.     

Balance sheet changes and the impact of financial sector risk-taking on fiscal multipliers

We analyse implications of financial sector dynamics for fiscal expenditure multipliers in recessionary conditions. A new stock-flow consistent model is developed in which a financial sector with four financial instruments is integrated with the real sector. The transmission of policy innovations occurs through balance sheet effects. Higher government expenditure increases aggregate demand in the economy. This reduces the perceived probability of default on financial institutions’ loans, increases asset valuations, and leads financial institutions to reduce interest rate spreads. Expectations of higher future wealth and a reduction in credit constraints supports consumption growth. Stronger balance sheets across institutions and lower interest rates increase investment. The interaction between growth and balance sheet valuations creates financial accelerator effects though its impact on financial sector risk-taking. Inflows of foreign savings can increase the multiplier further than would be the case in a closed economy constrained by domestic savings. The results show that fully modelling interactions between real and financial sectors generates fiscal multipliers higher than have been found for South Africa in other types of model.     

金融压抑与农民增收关系的实证研究——以常德市为例

我国农村金融压抑的特征主要表现在农村金融组织资源供给不足、农村金融机构功能不全、金融机构城乡与区域布局失衡并存、农村金融机构的资产质量不高等方面。本研究以常德市统计数据为研究基础,采用回归方法分析了金融压抑对农民增收的影响,发现：农业贷款额、三农投入额与农民收入变动之间呈稳定的正向函数关系且两者对农民收入影响的贡献率是不同的,农业贷款额为0．448,三农投入额为0．57,说明金融功能发挥不足,处于压抑状态。因此,应加强农村金融组织建设,改善金融压抑状态;创新信贷服务方式,提高金融服务水平金融扶持新兴农业产业,创造农民增收亮点等,以促进农民收入增加。     

Unemployment, credit rationing, and capital accumulation: a tale of two frictions

Summary. This paper develops a model in which two information frictions are embedded into an otherwise conventional neoclassical growth model; an adverse selection problem in the labor market and a costly state verification problem in the credit market. The former allows equilibrium unemployment to arise endogenously while the latter is responsible for equilibrium credit rationing. This structure is used to investigate a theoretical link between the level of unemployment and the extent of credit rationing (and capital formation). The presence of the labor market friction is enough to generate scope for multiple steady state equilibria. The model also generates a large class of endogenous cyclical and chaotic dynamical equilibria. Development trap phenomena may also appear. Received: April 10, 1998; revised version: May 20, 1998     

The Credit Channel of Capital Tax Policy

A neoclassical growth model is augmented by a corporate sector, financial intermediation, and a set of tax rates. In this setting, capital structure is determined by the interplay between a tax advantage of debt finance and costly state verification entailed by asymmetric information. Effects of capital tax reforms are investigated with a special focus on this micro‐founded credit channel of tax policy. The theoretical part of the paper establishes a new, institution‐based view on the motivation of debt finance in general equilibrium and derives financial and real effects of private and corporate income tax policies. Using a calibration with U.S. data, the applied part demonstrates that tax cuts cause significant adjustments of capital structure. Nevertheless, it turns out that the credit channel generates relatively small effects of tax reforms on consumption, investment, and growth.     

Increasing Wealth and Increasing Instability: The Role of Collateral

In development economics, growth in credit is generally associated with faster long-run growth as financial intermediation improves the efficiency of channeling capital to productive investment. Yet, among developing countries high growth in credit almost always guarantees the outbreak of a financial crisis. The authors attempt to reconcile the two seemingly contradictory facts with an endogenous growth model in which entry to international borrowing entails some significant fixed cost. The poorest countries are excluded from international borrowing because of the fixed cost. The higher-income developing countries will find it optimal to sink the fixed cost to borrow internationally, growing faster as a result, but also become prone to fluctuations arising from shocks to the international financial market.     

OPTIMAL FOREIGN BORROWING REVISITED

Foreign capital has become increasingly important in financing investment and growth in developing countries. Foreign capital flows, however, can be volatile as is evident from the recent financial crises. It has also recently been noted by researchers that there is little systematic empirical evidence that foreign capital contributes to the economic growth of developing countries. In this context, this paper attempts to theoretically reevaluate the borrowing behaviour of a developing economy that relies on foreign borrowing for its capital formation. In particular, this paper investigates the implications of different lending policies of international financial institutions. It is found that no matter whether the borrowing interest rate increases with the level of foreign debt per capita or with the foreign‐capital/total‐capital ratio, the economy always moves toward the stationary state. The result holds even when the representative agent regards the interest rate given as constant. This implies that foreign borrowing does help economic growth, irrespective of lending policies of international financial institutions.     

Investment credit and child labour

It is generally assumed that credit has a positive effect on children's schooling among poor households. This article shows that need not be the case when households obtain credit for investment purposes. In fact, investment loans may not have any effect on the likelihood of schooling for children who work in their family business. Our estimates confirm that this is the case; credit used to finance investments has no effect on the odds of schooling for employed children. This may be because investment loans increase children's labour productivity, which in turn increases the opportunity cost of schooling. The results of this study suggest that improving access to credit may not, by itself, constitute a solution to the problem of child labour in developing countries.     

Global banking and international business cycles

This paper incorporates a global bank into a two-country business cycle model. The bank collects deposits from households and makes loans to entrepreneurs, in both countries. It has to finance a fraction of loans using equity. We investigate how such a bank capital requirement affects the international transmission of productivity and loan default shocks. Three findings emerge. First, the bank's capital requirement has little effect on the international transmission of productivity shocks. Second, the contribution of loan default shocks to business cycle fluctuations is negligible under normal economic conditions. Third, an exceptionally large loan loss originating in one country induces a sizeable and simultaneous decline in economic activity in both countries. This is particularly noteworthy, as the 2007–09 global financial crisis was characterized by large credit losses in the US and a simultaneous sharp output reduction in the US and the Euro Area. Our results thus suggest that global banks may have played an important role in the international transmission of the crisis.     

Effective supply failures and structural adjustment: a real-financial model with reference to India

Using a multiperiod real–financial CGE model, this paperidentifies the impact of budgetary policy on credit supply asa possible factor limiting the effectiveness of structural adjustmentprogrammes. Focusing on credit rather than money, and explicitlyanalysing the relation between the budget and the credit creationprocess, the model goes beyond earlier modelling approachesby (1) incorporating credit rationing, (2) recognising the dualrole of credit for working capital and investment, and (3) allowingfor endogenous switches between credit-constrained, capacity-constrainedand demand-constrained regimes. With this approach, the relationbetween money, output and prices, and issues of crowding inversus crowding out, are solved endogenously rather than assumeda priori.     

Remittances,financial development,and growth

Despite the increasing importance of remittances in total international capital flows, the relationship between remittances and growth has not been adequately studied. This paper studies one of the links between remittances and growth, in particular how local financial sector development influences a country's capacity to take advantage of remittances. Using a newly-constructed dataset for remittances covering about 100 developing countries, we find that remittances boost growth in countries with less developed financial systems by providing an alternative way to finance investment and helping overcome liquidity constraints. This finding controls for the endogeneity of remittances and financial development, does not depend on the particular measure of financial sector development used, and is robust to a number of robustness tests, including threshold estimation. We also provide evidence that there could be an investment channel trough which remittances can promote growth especially when the financial sector does not meet the credit needs of the population.