Determinants of Trade Credit in the Japanese Manufacturing Sector

This paper examines the determinants of trade credit in Japanese manufacturing companies. The empirical analysis presents evidence that the volume of trade credit is influenced not only by transactional factors but also by financial positions. The empirical test reveals that firms' future business prospects affect the volume of trade credit. Notably, for small firms whose liquidity is constrained, nontransactional factors such as an increase in cash flow reduce the need for trade credit. This paper also finds that trade payables act as a complement to bank loans. The quantitative relationship between trade payables and bank loans suggests that when monetary policy works in the financial markets, it also influences the trade-related credit markets. J. Japan. Int. Econ., June 2001, 15(2), pp. 160–177. Department of Economics, Fukushima University, 1 Kanayagawa, Fukushima-shi, Fukushima 960-1296, Japan. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E52, G32.     

Japan's elderly small business managers: Performance and succession

We investigate the effects of succession from an elderly to a nonelderly small business manager using firm-level data for Japan. The number of elderly small business managers has increased in Japan with the aging of the population; therefore, succession to younger managers has become an important policy issue. We make use of data for 2001–2015 for 188,021 small businesses, of which 77,773 at some point have a manager aged 60 or older and 8711 of these transition to a manager of under age 60. First, we investigate the relationship between firm performance and manager age. Performance is found to be lower for firms with elderly managers. Second, we estimate the determinants of succession in small businesses with elderly managers, showing that larger, less leveraged, more cash-rich, and profitable firms are more likely to transition to younger managers. Our results imply that more poorly performing firms are less likely to replace elderly managers, suggesting that such firms are not selected by young managers. Third, we examine post-succession performance using propensity score matching. Succession from elderly to young managers is shown to have positive effects on sales, employment, assets, return on assets, capital investment, and cash holdings. These results imply that succession improves firm growth. Furthermore, young successors tend to accumulate cash holdings implying that they are more risk averse and/or face tighter credit constraints than their predecessors.     

Liquidity Crises and Corporate Cash Holdings in Chile

This paper addresses the heterogonous effects of adverse liquidity shocks on corporate cash holdings in an emerging market. We use a large panel dataset with quarterly financial information for Chilean firms during the period 1996–2009. We find three main results. First, liquidity crises have had a negative and economically significant effect on cash holdings, but mainly for small firms; medium‐sized and large firms have not been affected by liquidity crises. Second, liquidity crises reduce the ability of firms to adjust to optimal cash holdings. Finally, medium‐sized firms are less able to adjust cash holdings compared to small and large firms.     

No lending relationships and liquidity management of small businesses during a financial shock

We investigate the determinants of the end of lending relationships with banks using small business data. We also investigate how small businesses without lending relationships financed credit demand during the global financial shock. First, we find that firms with lower growth, low working capital, and high internal cash were more likely to end lending relationships with banks. Supply-side effects on the determinants of the end of relationships are insignificant. Second, when firms experienced credit demand during the financial shock, those with lending relationships increased bank borrowings while those without lending relationships reduced internal cash. Third, firm performance (in terms of profitability) was neither lower nor higher for firms that did not have lending relationships with banks during the shock period.     

Credit Card Averters and Amassers: Evidence from Malaysia*

Various socio‐demographic characteristics determine credit card ownership. Based on a hurdle‐count data model, the decision on card ownership is separated into two parts: whether to own one, and if so, how many cards to hold. Results indicate that age, race, education, income, number of loan commitments, household size and current account ownership have clear influences on the probability of ownership and quantity of card holdings. Common perception that easy access to credit via credit cards makes multiple card holdings enticing is not validated as results show that easy access to credit was not a significant driver of the number of cards owned. Card ownership and quantity of card holdings have implications for market competition among credit card issuers.     

The effects of credit lines on cash holdings and capital investment: Evidence from Japan

This study examines how credit lines affect corporate cash holdings and capital investment using a hand-collected data on publicly traded Japanese firms from 2006 to 2017. The study compares firms with and without credit lines to investigate the effects of credit lines. The empirical results are as follows: (1) Firms with credit lines hold smaller cash reserves than those without; (2) Firms with credit lines undertake more capital investment than those without; (3) The effects of credit lines are more amplified for financially constrained firms than their counterpart; (4) A close bank–firm relationship plays a positive role in the effect of credit lines on corporate activities.These empirical findings indicate that credit lines can improve firms’ financial flexibility and allow them to use cash holdings held for precautionary reasons to invest. The results also show that credit lines and the attendant implicit bank–firm relationships are complementary to each other. Moreover, having both credit lines and a close bank–firm relationship is important to Japanese firms for their corporate activities. Furthermore, the results imply that the use of credit lines is still relatively undeveloped in Japan, which may be a reason for the country's large corporate savings and lackluster investment.     

Trade Credit and Productive Efficiency in Developing Countries

In developing countries, credit shortages are often so severe as to impact a firm's day-to-day production decisions. Using firm-level data from five African countries, I show supplier credit is positively correlated with capacity utilization; the result continues to hold when credit access is instrumented using supplier characteristics. I claim that this is because firms lacking credit likely face inventory shortages, leading to lower rates of capacity utilization. This explanation yields several further predictions that are supported by the data: there is a positive relationship between supplier credit and inventory holdings; moreover, raw materials “stockouts” are positively correlated with capacity utilization, particularly in “inventory-intensive” industries.     

Impact of Credit Accessibility on the Earnings of Self-employed Businesses in India

The study assesses the impact of credit accessibility on the earnings of self-employed small businesses in India. Using unincorporated non-agricultural enterprises survey data provided by National Survey Sample Organisation (NSSO) on the Indian economy for the year 2015-16, the paper shows that access to credit augments earnings of self-employed businesses. The paper also separately shows the impact of credit availed from formal and informal lending agencies on self-employment earnings. Interestingly, we observe that both these lending agencies have a positive impact, even though the terms and conditions are not favourable in the informal market. Based on our findings we suggest for creation of informal-formal credit linkage programme akin to that of SHG bank linkage programme in which enterprises that do not possess accessibility to formal sources due to absence of collateral can also get formal credits through informal lenders at favourable terms and conditions.     

Credit accessibility,institutional deficiency and entrepreneurship in China

Using a brand new data, we document seriously low credit accessibility from financial institutes for small and micro enterprises (SMEs) and examine whether and how it affects entrepreneurial activity in China. We find that credit constraints significantly decrease the possibility of households becoming entrepreneurs. Based on our estimates, 10% decrease in the probability of being credit constrained would be associated with 4.3 million newly-created household businesses, or equivalently 11 million jobs. In the end, factors that determine credit accessibility are exploited and the result indicates that institutional deficiency plays a role in shaping the pattern of financing difficulties in China. Specifically, we find households in regions with more commercialized banking or those with government-sector workers are more likely to access to credit when other relevant variables are conditioned. In particular, the positive role of government-sector workers is more pronounced in regions with weaker market institutions.     

Cash demand and financial literacy: A case study using Japanese survey data

Understanding the statistical relationship between cash demand and financial literacy is important in addressing policy concerns in Japan because the government has tried to reduce cash demands for day-to-day transactions and hoarding. However, few scholars have investigated this point because the available statistics on household cash demand do not contain the standard proxy variable for financial literacy and they do not distinguish cash demands among various households for day-to-day transactions and hoarding. Findings from this research fill these gaps by first imputing the missing financial literacy variable from other surveys and then by comparing the distribution of cash holdings for the high, middle, and low levels of financial literacy groups. In comparing the distributions of cash holdings by the three groups, cash distributions were also compared after dropping the observations above higher percentiles, expecting that the cash demand for hoarding would show up in the higher percentile of the cash distributions. Thus, it was possible to examine cash demands for day-to-day transactions. A comparison of the distribution of the ratio of cash demands to total financial assets holdings plus cash demands (hereafter cash ratio) across three levels of financial literacy groups was also made. It was found that a person with a higher level of financial literacy tends to have a large amount of cash holdings, perhaps mainly for the sake of hoarding; however, the person also tends to have other kinds of financial assets and thus a lower cash ratio value. Taking those findings at face value, the promotion of financial literacy and cashless payments for day-to-day transactions would reduce the relatively small amount of cash demands for day-to-day transactions, but it would not necessarily reduce the amount of cash demands for hoarding.     

供应链金融的融资约束缓解效应研究——基于中国创业板数据的实证分析

针对中小企业融资难的现实,本文从信号传递机制及共生理论视角,提出供应链上合作关系的稳定性以及核心企业信用扩散对供应链金融模式下中小企业融资绩效调节机理的构念模型及相关假设,并运用2011年-2017年我国创业板上市企业的面板数据进行了实证研究。结果显示:企业的现金持有量会随其经营性现金流正向变动,这表明企业面临着一定的融资约束;而在加入供应链金融发展水平变量后,企业的现金持有量变动受经营性现金流的影响减弱,这表明融资难度有所降低。进一步地,本文引入供应链上合作关系的稳定性以及核心企业的信用扩散影响两个调节变量,分别在原有模型中加入交互项进行了总体回归和分组检验,研究发现供应链金融模式对于供应链上合作关系趋于稳定的企业以及受核心企业信用扩散影响的企业具有更显著的融资约束缓解效应。     

Corporate Cash Holding in Asia

In this paper, we analyze the determinants of corporate saving in the form of changes in cash holdings for 11 Asian economies using firm‐level data from the Oriana Database for the 2002–2011 period. We find some evidence that cash flow has a positive impact on the change in cash holdings (i.e. that the cash flow sensitivity of cash is positive) and that the positive impact of cash flow on the change in cash holdings is larger and more significant in the case of smaller and presumably more constrained firms than in the case of larger and presumably less constrained firms in both developed and developing economies. Both of these findings corroborate the importance of financial constraints in Asian firms. In addition, we find that the cash flow sensitivity of cash declined after the global financial crisis and that Tobin's q has a positive impact on the change in cash holdings, especially in the case of larger and presumably unconstrained firms.     

小微信贷财税支持政策效果评估及建议

财税部门出台了一系列旨在激励金融机构加大对小微企业信贷投放力度的优惠支持政策。本文以黑龙江省84家银行机构为样本,对小微信贷财税支持政策效果进行定性和定量评估,结果显示:小微信贷财税支持政策在顶层设计和具体优惠标准等方面存在缺陷,导致对银行的激励作用有限,对银行的决策影响权重偏低。因此,应进一步明确小微信贷财税政策的支持重点和方向并调整支持方式,增强政策的系统性、简洁性和便利性,同时应从小微信贷决策、小微贷款办理和小微贷款存续三个环节完善调整小微信贷财税支持政策的具体标准。     

内部控制、信任与商业信用融资

基于信任视角探析内部控制对商业信用融资的作用,以及该作用效果受信誉型信任、个性特征型信任以及制度型信任三种类型信任机制的影响,研究表明：在影响商业信用融资因素中, 内部控制质量的作用显著;三种信任维度与内部控制在商业信用融资中起到互补作用。补充检验发现：较之地方国企,中央国企在获取商业信用融资时处于有利地位,且其内部控制质量能起到更为显著的作用。本文丰富了中国情景下内部控制经济后果方面的文献,也为政策制定者进一步完善商业信用环境提供一定参考依据。     

On corporate philanthropy of private firms and trade credit financing in China

This paper examines the impact of corporate philanthropy on trade credit financing for listed private firms in China viewed from the heterogeneous perceptions of credit suppliers. A positive relationship is found between corporate philanthropy and trade credit financing, suggesting that in general firms donating more can obtain more trade credits. However, this relationship is significant only for those firms with positive free cash flows and no political connections. It is striking to find that such a relationship does not exist when firms have negative free cash flows or political connections. Moreover, the relationship between corporate philanthropy and trade credits is affected by the local social trust environment. A good social trust environment is amicable for firms to use corporate philanthropy in obtaining trade credits. The research findings have important policy implications. This paper makes valuable contributions to the current literature through highlighting the importance of supplier heterogeneous perceptions towards corporate philanthropy as well as the effect of the local trust environment on the effectiveness of philanthropy in trade credit financing of the Chinese listed private firms.     

High‐Frequency Contagion of Currency Crises in Asia*

Using daily data from the Asian currency crisis, the present paper examines high‐frequency contagion effects among six Asian countries. The ‘origin’ (of exchange rate depreciation, or decline in stock prices) and the ‘affected’ (currencies, or stock prices) in the daily spillover relationship were defined and identified. Indonesia is found to be the main origin country, affecting exchange rates of other countries. Contrary to conventional wisdom, evidence of high‐frequency crisis spillover from the Thai exchange rate to other currencies was weak at best. There exists a high‐frequency contagion in stock markets among East Asian countries. Contagion coefficients are positively correlated with trade indices, indicating that investors lower their financial assessment of a country that has trade linkage to a crisis origin country within days, if not hours, of a shock.     

Financial Reporting and Trade Credit: Evidence from Mandatory IFRS Adoption*

We investigate the effect of mandatory IFRS adoption on trade credit. We document that firms in countries that adopt IFRS receive more trade credit from their suppliers, consistent with improved financial reporting quality and comparability playing a role in facilitating informal financing. This increase is larger for countries with a low level of societal trust, a poor pre‐IFRS‐adoption information environment, and stronger legal enforcement. These cross‐sectional results suggest that the conditions under which higher‐quality information is made publicly available affect suppliers' decisions to provide trade credit. This increase is also larger for firms with greater exposure to foreign markets, a finding that highlights the importance of more comparable international financial reporting standards in facilitating cross‐country trade credit. We also find that IFRS adoption has a stronger positive effect on trade credit for firms with greater liquidity needs. Finally, we find that firms in countries that adopt IFRS also extend more trade credit to their customers. Overall, our results support the notion that financial reporting can have a causal effect on trade credit.     

环境不确定性、管理者能力与商业信用融资

选取2017-2021年我国沪深A股上市公司数据，运用多元线性回归模型实证检验了环境不确定性对商业信用融资的影响，并探究管理者能力在环境不确定性与商业信用融资之间的调节作用。研究表明，环境不确定性的提高会显著减少公司的商业信用融资，而管理者能力可以有效缓解二者之间的负向关系，进行稳健性检验后结果依然成立。研究结果对企业缓解商业信用融资约束，以及相关部门规范商业信用市场具有一定借鉴意义。     

Monetary policy,cash holding and corporate investment: Evidence from China

This paper uses 13,766 firm-year observations between 2003 and 2013 from China to investigate the effects of monetary policy on corporate investment and the mitigating effects of cash holding. We find that tightening monetary policy reduces corporate investment while cash holdings mitigate such adverse effects. The cash mitigating role is especially significant for financially constrained firms, non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and those firms located in a less developed financial market. Cash holding also improves investment efficiency when monetary policy is tightening and tightening monetary policy enhances the ‘cash-cash flow’ sensitivity. Our empirical evidence calls for a critical evaluation on the monetary policies implemented in China which are less effective for state-owned enterprises. It also calls for a necessity for local government to further develop regional financial markets to protect vulnerable businesses, such as non-SOEs and financially constrained firms, from external shocks in order to maintain their sustainable growth and competitive advantages.     

The role of information sharing in trade credit distribution: evidence from Thailand

Prior research has shown that information sharing among lenders facilitates bank credit allocation and reduces default rates. We examine the role of information sharing in trade credit allocation using a sample of publicly traded firms in Thailand over the 1994–2005 period. Taking the establishment of a private credit bureau in 1999 as signalling improvement in information sharing among lenders, we obtain three main results in the improved information sharing period: (1) Thai firms have become less dependent on supplier credit; (2) financially constrained firms redistribute more funds via trade credit; and (3) the relationships between the use of trade credit and firm‐specific factors such as liquidity, free cash flow, tangible assets, interest cost ratio, and firm size weaken as information sharing improves. Our results are consistent with the view that better information sharing facilitates credit allocation. Hence, policies aiming at facilitating information exchange among financial intermediaries should be supported. We also find support for the view that bank credit substitutes for trade credit. This substitution lowers firms' cost of capital, given that trade credit is assumed to be more costly than bank loans.