Higher Education: Subsidizing Tuition versus Subsidizing Student Loans

We use a simple two‐period equilibrium framework to explore the effects of two different subsidization regimes for higher education on the formation of human capital and on the distribution of incomes. Individuals finance their investments in higher education through income‐contingent education loans as well as subsidies from the government. The subsidy is tax‐financed. We compare an egalitarian subsidy scheme, which reduces by a uniform amount the tuition charged to students, with a student loan subsidy which is proportional to the student's debt service obligation. We show that both types of subsidies reduce the economy‐wide underinvestment in higher education and lead to a more equal income distribution. Furthermore, according to some social welfare criterion, the student loan subsidy regime dominates the tuition subsidy regime if the subsidy level is predetermined, while the converse is true if the subsidy level constitutes a choice variable of the government.     

The effect of lender and loan type on a borrowing firm’s equity return

Past empirical studies appear to support the idea that banks and finance companies do not differ in their ability to resolve adverse selection problems associated with issuing new debt. In this article, we find there is a difference. More specifically, using an event study we find larger abnormal returns for secured loan disclosures to lower quality borrowers when the lender is a finance company versus a bank. This suggests the market views finance companies as more effective than banks in evaluating/monitoring lower quality borrowers obtaining secured loans. We posit this is due to finance companies’ greater expertise in this type of lending, resulting from specialization. Our findings extend the literature on how lender identity can influence signals about firm value from loan disclosures. Our results also support recent findings that positive abnormal returns to borrowing firms may not be a general feature across the loan population, but may be restricted to smaller, lower quality borrowers. Finally, we are the first to provide evidence that the market takes loan type into account, not just lender and borrower type, when considering the information embedded in loan disclosures.     

Why do Banks Fail?

Banks advance loans in the absence of precise knowledge in relation to the outcome of borrowers' projects. Consequently, uncertainty in relation to loan repayment emerges. Thus, banks introduce the 'credit standard' as insurance against loans, so that should borrowers' projects fail, borrowers have an alternative means of honouring their debt obligations. It is argued in this paper that in the competitive atmosphere under which this sector operates, it is not possible to secure the entire loan portfolio by introducing the credit standard, and in recent years this difficulty has been further exacerbated by financial liberalisation, which may have caused bank failures.     

建立高校助学贷款风险防范机制的构想

高校贫困生助学贷款政策的正确实施,关系到目前我国高校贫困学生的正常学习、教育公平和社会公平大局。国家助学贷款政策推出已经十年,历经调整变化,但仍然存在一些明显的机制缺陷,本文认为要实现高校贫困生助学贷款的可持续发展,建立高校资助贷款的风险防范机制十分必要。主要从以下五个方面着手：一是构建多元化的资助贷款体系,实现资助贷款主体多元化、资助手段多样化、还贷方式的多样化,使资助贷款更加人性化、科学化;二是建立资助贷款风险的顸警机制,建立“双重”环节的顸警机制,加强各参与方的良性互动;三是建立政策性资助贷款担保体系,通过建立政策性担保机构、建立银行、担保机构与政府共担风险机制;四是完善资助贷款的激励一约束机制,强化风险主体的责任意识;五是完善资助贷款的支持体系。     

Funding self-employment – the role of consumer credit

This article investigates whether self-employed households use consumer loans – in particular, instalment loans and overdrafts – to finance business activities. Controlling for financial and nonfinancial household variables, we show that self-employed households particularly use personal overdrafts significantly more often than employee households. When analysing the correlation between consumer loan take-ups and consumption of self-employed in comparison to employee households, we find first evidence that overdrafts are used by self-employed to finance their business as well. This indicates that intermingling constitutes a financing strategy when regular business loans might not be accessible.     

金融生态视角下的国家助学贷款困境解析

国家助学贷款是我国对贫困学生资助的一种重要形式,虽几经改革,但目前开展国家助学贷款仍然困难重重。一方面,我国金融生态的非良性是造成国家助学贷款外部环境恶劣的原因所在;另一方面,我国国家助学贷款的制度性缺陷、自我调节机制的丧失以及助贷生态链的功能缺失则是国家助贷困境的问题所在。重塑良性金融生态,修复调整助学贷款生态链,促进主体平衡发展,是我国国家助学贷款可持续发展的必由途径。     

The pricing of risk in emerging credit markets: Bonds versus loans

Much of the volatility in emerging markets in the 1990s stems from the fact that the major form of foreign investment is the bond rather than the bank loans which predominated until the debt crisis of the 1980s. Bondholders are too dispersed to negotiate with during a liquidity shortfall. Thus, a shortage of reserves becomes a full-blown crisis. This was not the case in the 1980s when banks, as the major creditors, often lent to countries in arrears. The risk to a loan is therefore rescheduling, while the risk to a bond is default. Empirically pricing loans and bonds as assets reveals that bonds incorporate the greater risk of default into their spreads. Debentures are thus riskier credit than loans. As developing countries now obtain most finance through these risky instruments, the volatility of the 1990s is better understood.     

中国的政策性金融和邮政储蓄的关系研究

本文的主要目的是分析政策性金融的资金和邮政储蓄的关系。通过分析 ,提出了以下几点看法 :( 1 )自 1 994年以后 ,中央银行仍然维持邮政储蓄资金转存关系的主要原因是为了确保向政策性银行提供资金。 ( 2 )在我国目前的政策性金融制度下 ,邮政储蓄是政策性金融的重要资金来源之一 ,而中央银行实际上起到了部分的“中间机构”的作用。所谓邮政储蓄抽走农村资金这一说法并不准确。 ( 3 )通过对政策性金融的利率结构的详细分析 ,提出了中央银行对财政实施间接补贴的两种解释。最后 ,作者指出了制度上存在的一些问题 ,并提出了相应的改革建议。     

数字金融发展能否在农村金融市场发挥“鲶鱼效应”*——来自中国农信机构的证据

本文从农信机构贷款支农的角度出发，探究数字金融能够在多大程度上促进市场竞争，进而在农村金融市场发挥“鲶鱼效应”。理论部分基于市场势力假说，分析了数字金融发展对农信机构放贷行为的影响；实证部分将北京大学数字普惠金融的县级指数与县域农村信用社、农村商业银行的贷款数据相结合，对理论假说进行了检验。结论如下：第一，数字金融发展能够激励当地农信机构提升涉农贷款和农户贷款的投放规模和增长速度，表明数字金融在农村金融市场上发挥了“鲶鱼效应”。第二，数字金融发展对农信机构支农力度的正向影响主要来源于竞争激励机制，而现阶段数字金融难以在技术上对农信机构起到示范作用。第三，进一步讨论发现，数字金融发展还有助于降低农信机构的贷款利率，让更多的涉农主体享受到利率更低的信贷服务，真正推动农村正规金融服务的“普”和“惠”共同实现。     

Analyzing the effect of advanced agriculture development policy

This paper broadens the scope of current theoretical studies, divides rural agriculture into two sectors—advanced and traditional, and takes into consideration the land factor and the urban informal sector. Under the assumption that wages in the advanced agricultural sector are higher than in the traditional agricultural sector, this paper analyzes the effect of policies to promote advanced agricultural development with the comparative static method. The main conclusions of this paper are: wage subsidization of the advanced agricultural sector, in addition to having the same economic impact as interest subsidies on the advanced agricultural sector, could also increase the land employment in the advanced agricultural sector and reduce that in the traditional agricultural sector. Therefore, the effect of wage subsidizing policies is stronger than that of interest subsidies, while land rent subsidies for the advanced agricultural sector have the same economic effect as wage subsidies.     

高校助学贷款政策与实施效应相关性研究——以湖南省为例

利用分层抽样方法从部分湖南省高校2004到2008年的助学贷款数据中选取4070个样本,利用SPSS软件分析样本中贷款利率、期限及还款程序、生源地和各学科门类学费等自变量与贷款金额、人数、次数、年限、提前还款与违约率等因变量的相关性。由此建议在目前的政策环境下,推进重点地区生源地贷款与鼓励学生回家乡就业相结合、增加艰苦专业的学生补贴,制定均衡的利率政策,优化贷款程序等可改善国家助学贷款政策的实施效应,从而为助学贷款政策的完善提供一种新的思路。     

SOME NEW EVIDENCE ON COMPETITION IN PAYDAY LENDING MARKETS

A critical question in the policy debate about payday lending is whether other financial institutions can plausibly provide attractive and lower‐priced substitutes for standard payday loans. I present several new pieces of evidence addressing the question, focusing on whether credit unions, which are often held as the strongest potential competitors to payday lenders, do (or might) viably compete in the payday loan market. National payday loan offerings by credit unions show that very few credit unions currently offer payday loans. Credit union industry reports suggest that those credit unions offering such loans seem unwilling or unable to undercut substantially the prevailing prices set by payday lenders. Those industry reports also reveal that lower‐priced credit union loans generally ration riskier borrowers out of the market by imposing greater restrictions on approval and repayment; risk‐adjusted prices for credit union payday loans may not be lower at all. Survey evidence suggests that most current payday borrowers prefer higher‐priced but less restrictive standard payday loans to lower‐priced but more restrictive alternatives offered by credit unions. The combined demand‐ and supply‐side evidence suggests that one should not expect credit unions (or by extension banks) to offer lower‐priced, higher‐quality alternatives for consumers who currently use payday loans. (JEL G2, L0, L5)     

The lack of loan aversion among Canadian high school students

Evidence is presented on the factors that influence take‐up for postsecondary education financing (loans or grants) for high school students. Results show several factors influence the students' decisions about taking loans or grants but the most prominent influence was the price of educational subsidy. A total of 1,248 high school students across Canada participated. Prices for the grants and loans overlapped substantially in order to more clearly distinguish the impact of loan aversion on the decision to take up financial assistance to pursue PSE. The study featured paid experimental decisions (ranging from $25 to $700 in cash and from $500 to $4,000 in education financing), a numeracy assessment, a student survey and a parental telephone survey. The targeted sample included at‐risk high school students: low SES levels, First Nations and first generation students. Participants were marginally sensitive to the form of financing (grant or loan), with no evidence of systematic loan aversion being detected.     

An Analysis of FEE-HELP in the Vocational Education and Training Sector

The public vocational education and training (VET) system is one of the few areas in Australia's tertiary education system where students are required to pay upfront fees without access to loan assistance. These arrangements may lead to sub‐optimal educational outcomes to the extent that prospective students reject a VET education on the basis of short‐term financial constraints. In this paper we analyse some of the important issues related to the adoption of FEE‐HELP (a 2005 federal government financial instrument based on the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS)). It is argued that income contingent loans of this kind are associated with the advantages of both default‐protection and consumption smoothing. Using data from the first three waves of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, we examine various empirical issues associated with the adoption of FEE‐HELP in VET, including the extent of private salary returns to VET qualifications. As well, we explore issues related to the public subsidies inherent in the adoption of FEE‐HELP in VET, and illustrate the time periods involved in loan repayments for various assumptions concerning the size of the charge and the future income of VET graduates. Administrative issues are considered, as are the implications for the Commonwealth government with respect to potential subsidies associated with the design parameters. In the 2007–08 Federal Budget, the former government announced a small extension of the FEE‐HELP system into Australian VET, a reform consistent with improved tertiary funding arrangements.     

ANALYZING POSTSECONDARY RETURNS: DOES EDUCATIONAL LOAN DEFAULT PLAY A ROLE?

The economic benefits of a traditional college education relative to a high school degree are well known to students and economists alike. However, little is known about the economic returns associated with associate and vocational degrees. Using a large micro-data set of former guaranteed student loan borrowers, this paper analyzes post-schooling returns for bachelors as well as associates and vocational students. The analysis further extends the existing literature by controlling for individual characteristics that income studies typically do not measure. By including the default status of the educational loan used to finance the postsecondary education, the intrinsic individual characteristics of commitment and initiative are controlled for and are found to significantly increase earnings.     

Do the GSEs expand the supply of mortgage credit? New evidence of crowd out in the secondary mortgage market

The dramatic government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September, 2008 was motivated in part by a desire to ensure a continued flow of credit to the mortgage market. This study examines a closely related issue: the extent to which GSE activity crowds out mortgage purchases by private secondary market intermediaries. Evidence of substantial crowd out suggests that government support for the GSEs may be less warranted, whereas the absence of crowd out implies that GSE loan purchases enhance liquidity.Using 1994–2008 HMDA data for conventional, conforming sized loans, three distinct periods with regard to GSE crowd out are apparent. From 1994 to 2003, the share of loans sold to the secondary market increased from 60 to over 90%, private sector and GSE market shares of loan purchases were roughly similar for most market segments, and IV estimates indicate relatively little GSE crowd out of private secondary market purchases. From 2004 to 2006, private loan purchases boomed and dominated those of the GSEs, while IV estimates indicate crowd out jumped to 50% at the peak of the boom. This is especially true in the market for home purchase as opposed to refinance loans. With the crash in housing and mortgage markets in 2007, private sector intermediaries pulled back, the GSEs regained market share, and evidence of GSE crowd out disappeared in both the home purchase loan and refinance markets. These patterns suggest that the degree of GSE crowd out varies with market conditions and that the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac likely served to enhance liquidity to the mortgage market during the 2007–2009 financial crisis.     

Market structure and credit procyclicality: Lessons from loan markets in the European Union banking sectors

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the market structure has an impact on procyclicality in the European Union bank loan markets. The cyclical responses of three types of bank loans (residential mortgage loans, consumer loans, and corporate loans) are quantified separately using the interacted panel vector autoregression model at the country level and the single-equation panel regression model at the bank level. Using a sample of 26 European Union countries, we find that the procyclical responses of residential mortgage loans and consumer loans are significantly stronger and prolonged when the banking sector is more concentrated or dominated by foreign banks. However, we find that there are nonlinear relationships between the market structure and credit procyclicality based on bank-level data. We also find some heterogeneities between advanced and transitioning European Union banking sectors. Finally, our findings confirm the leading role of residential mortgages in intensifying credit fluctuations.     

美国SBA小企业信贷融资服务模式及其启示

在过去的20年里（1992-2012年）,小企业创造了美国超过2／3的新增就业岗位,2800万家小企业雇佣了6000万美国人,占私人部门劳动力的50％。值得关注的是,美国小企业管理局（Small Business Administration,SBA）对于美国小企业创新创业发展发挥了巨大的积极作用,提供了大量的贷款、融资担保、政府采购服务、商业咨询服务以及其他多种形式的服务等,其中小企业信贷融资服务是SBA最为成功的服务模式,具有丰富的实践经验。通过分析美国SBA在促进小企业信贷融资方面的成功实践,为我国政府在促进中小企业创新创业发展方面提供经验借鉴。     

Insights on endogenous money and the liquidity preference theory of interest

It is argued that the debate between “structuralist” and “horizontalist” has long been obscured because of inadequate treatment, in both approaches, of the credit-money supply and of the total money supply. As a result, endogenous money models still have serious limitations today. On the one hand, the bank loan markup and the loan interest rate are exogenous in the horizontalist model, which supposes that they do not depend on the money/liquidity market conditions (as if bank loans did not compete with the existing liquidity). On the other hand, although interest rates are endogenous in the structuralist model, they result from inappropriate treatment of the loan supply and money/liquidity supply. This article aims to remove these shortcomings. It offers a theoretical framework and formal modeling where the creditworthy demand for loans determines the bank loan supply, given the central bank refinancing interest rate, while the total supply and demand for liquidity-money determines the markup and the market rate of interest in accordance with Keynes’s liquidity preference theory. In this framework, the post Keynesian theory of endogenous money and Keynes’s “verticalist” view prove to be analytically complementary.     

Microfinance and households access to credit: Evidence from Côte d’Ivoire

Evidence on microfinance services these days ironically shows a great preference for savings products rather than credit products by households. For some authors, this phenomenon is explained by the fact that microfinance products, and especially loans, from formal microfinance institutions do not fit the households demand. This paper first presents evidence on the observed phenomenon in the Ivorian microfinance sector. Second, it analyses the Ivorian credit market so as to understand the determinants of the choice for credits from formal sources versus informal sources. The results reveal the size of the loan, agricultural purpose, the geographical area where households live and ethnicity as factors influencing the choice for formal sources.