Financially Interlinked Business Groups*

Financial interlinkage, in the form of cross-holding of equity and debt between firms, characterizes business groups in many countries. We suggest that such financial interlinkage can be viewed as a way to solve credit rationing caused by asymmetric information. If firms possess better information about each other than a bank, then business groups can be a mechanism to induce firms to sort on the basis of this information. Banks can offer a menu of contracts that vary in the extent of financial interlinkage to induce firms to self-select on the basis of the equilibrium composition of the business groups they can form.     

Long-term finance and entrepreneurship

This paper investigates whether long-term finance affects firm entry worldwide. We construct a new database on short- and long-term credit provided by commercial banks to the private sector in 85 countries over the period 1995–2014. We then analyze whether differences in entrepreneurship are related to the provision of short- and long-term bank credit. Data on entrepreneurship are extracted from two frequently used databases: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring dataset and the Entrepreneurship Database, each of which captures different aspects of firm creation. The econometric results indicate that long-term credit does not stimulate firm entry. By contrast, we find that short-term credit is positively related to firm creation, from birth to registration. Controlling for potential endogeneity by implementing an instrumental variables approach does not affect our conclusions. Our findings suggest that better provision of short-term credit allows entrepreneurs to apply for formal loans instead of having to rely exclusively on informal loans or internal funds. The absence of impact of long-term loans can be explained by the difficulty entrepreneurs face in getting access to long-term credit.     

The credit crunch and fall in employment during the Great Recession

We study how a bank credit crunch—a dramatic worsening of firm and consumer access to bank credit, such as the one observed over the Great Recession—translates into job losses in U.S. manufacturing industries. To identify the impact of the recent credit crunch, we rely on differences in the degree of dependence on external finance and of tangibility of assets across manufacturing industries and in the sensitivity of these industries׳ output to changes in the supply of consumer credit. We find that, for employment, household access to bank loans matters more than firm access to bank loans. In addition, we show that, over the recent financial crisis, tightening access to commercial and industrial loans and, in particular, consumer installment loans may have contributed significantly to the drop in employment in the manufacturing sector.     

Private debt, unused credit lines, and seasoned equity offerings

We study a sample of SEOs to examine the impact of private debt and unused credit lines on SEO underpricing and long-run stock and operating performance. We do not find significant effects of private debt financing on SEO underpricing and long-run stock underperformance. However, firms with more bank debt and unused lines of credit exhibit significantly better pre-issue operating performance. Changes in operating performance from the pre-issue year to the post-issue period are negatively related to the size of unused credit lines. Capital spending decreases with the size of unused credit lines in the year prior to SEOs, but increases following SEOs. Our overall evidence suggests that the post-issue operating performance we observed may be a result of overinvestment, which is enhanced by unused credit lines.     

国家审计与商业银行信贷行为

采用2008—2020年中国商业银行非平衡面板数据,考察国家审计对银行信贷行为的影响。研究发现,国家审计可以促使银行提供更为宽松的信贷,且这种效应具有延续性。机制分析结果表明,国家审计可以通过提高管理效率、减少违规行为、加快经济增长三条渠道促进银行扩充信贷。异质性分析发现,国家审计对内部治理较好、东部地区、外部法律环境较好的银行信贷行为的正向影响更加显著。调节效应研究发现,社会审计增强了国家审计对银行信贷的促进作用,媒体监督削弱了国家审计的促进效应,而公众监督的调节效应不显著。进一步研究发现,虽然国家审计推动了银行信贷投放,但对贷款集中度产生了抑制作用,且相较于商业贷款和非农户贷款,国家审计提升了消费贷款和农户贷款,国家审计与银行信贷的关系在降低不良贷款率的同时提升了银行财务业绩,说明国家审计可以助推银行信贷业务的高质量发展。     

Information acquisition,foreign bank entry,and credit allocation

This paper presents a theoretical framework to understand the impact of foreign bank entry on the access to and the price of credit for different types of firms. A major point of departure from the previous literature is that incumbents’ information about firms is endogenous in the model; previous screenings and lending relations of incumbents determine which type(s) of firms they can identify. I show that incumbents’ information is negatively correlated with the quality of borrowers. Moreover, although a priori entrants have a comparative advantage in lending to transparent firms, previous lending relations of incumbents might reverse this relation. In particular, given that transparent firms are the only type screened before the entry and therefore they are the only type distinguishable by incumbents, entrants might have a comparative advantage in lending to opaque firms. The analysis provides new insights into the inconclusive evidence of the literature regarding entrants’ credit allocation.     

金融发展、商业信用融资与企业成长——来自中国Ａ股上市公司的经验证据

企业间的商业信用融资可以作为银行信贷的一种有效替代机制缓解企业融资约束,从而在企业的经营和成长中扮演着重要角色.本文利用中国A股上市公司数据,研究发现商业信用融资对企业成长有显著的正面影响,尤其是对于受融资约束企业和民营企业而言,商业信用融资对企业成长的促进作用更加明显.进一步地还发现当金融发展水平较低时,商业信用对企业成长,尤其是民营企业成长的作用相对较大.随着金融改革和市场化改革的深入,企业成长对商业信用融资的依赖将逐渐减弱.     

Credit risk of subsidiaries of foreign banks in CEE countries: Impacts of the parent bank and home country economic environment

In this study, using dynamic panel data, we investigated the influences of the home country economic environment and parent bank condition on the credit risk of foreign banks in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. We concentrated on the international transmission of credit risk through the internal capital market of multinational banks. Our theoretical assumptions follow studies that document how the parent bank condition and home country macroeconomic environment affect lending in subsidiaries in CEE countries. However, our results go one step further. We provide evidence that these relationships are reflected in subsidiaries’ credit risk in CEE countries. Our results suggest that the size and profitability of the parent bank have negative influences, while the liquidity and credit risk of the parent bank have positive influences on the subsidiaries’ credit risk. Moreover, the GDP growth in the parent bank’s country has a negative effect on the credit risk of the subsidiary, while the lending rate and liquidity in the parent bank country cause growth in the credit risk. These results indicate a new channel of international risk transfer from parent bank countries to host countries through foreign-owned banks.     

Trade credit financing and stock price crash risk

This study investigates the association between trade credit financing and stock price crash risk within China's context. We find that firms using more trade credit financing have significantly lower future stock price crash risk. This negative association is more pronounced for firms with greater information asymmetry and for firms located in less developed financial markets. This finding is robust to the endogeneity concern, alternative measures of stock price crash risk, and the inclusion of other factors identified in prior studies that might affect stock price crash risk. Further evidence suggests that both the monitoring mechanism and the disclosure mechanism drive the documented relation. Our study suggests that access to trade credit can significantly reduce the likelihood of crash risk in a country like China with less developed formal bank financing. Our study also suggests that investors can effectively avoid stock price crash risk by using the trade credit information disclosed in financial statements.     

Do credit squeezes influence firm survival? An empirical investigation of China

This paper analyses the effect of a “credit squeeze” policy that was set by the Chinese government in 2007, increasing the strictness for firm-level bank loans. We adopt the difference-in-difference (DID) model to compare the survival rate change before and after the policy was implemented. We further explore the mechanism behind how the “credit squeeze” policy reduced the probability of firms surviving the market from perspectives such as financial constraints and ownership structures. The “credit squeeze” policy significantly increased firms’ operating costs and lowered firms’ productivity. In addition, we find that the zombie firm phenomenon existing in state-owned enterprises has a large impact on our estimation. Our results provide practical policy implications regarding the compromise between systematic debt risk and firm survival.     

Global Credit Risk: World,Country and Industry Factors

We investigate the dynamic properties of systematic default risk conditions for firms in different countries, industries and rating groups. We use a high‐dimensional nonlinear non‐Gaussian state‐space model to estimate common components in corporate defaults in a 41 country samples between 1980:Q1 and s2014:Q4, covering both the global financial crisis and euro area sovereign debt crisis. We find that macro and default‐specific world factors are a primary source of default clustering across countries. Defaults cluster more than what shared exposures to macro factors imply, indicating that other factors also play a significant role. For all firms, deviations of systematic default risk from macro fundamentals are correlated with net tightening bank lending standards, suggesting that bank credit supply and systematic default risk are inversely related. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

银行信贷中第三方监督创新研究——以资产管理公司为例

本文针对我国传统的银行信贷业务中资产管理公司被动收购不良资产的问题,设计银行-企业-资产管理公司的三方契约,资产管理公司参与并监督企业信贷,能够降低企业信贷中的道德风险问题.通过对企业自有资金与银行可提供资金对于投资、银行与资产管理公司收益的分析,发现企业的自有资金以及企业主是否尽职决定了企业自身的融资能力.在投资项目固定不变的情况下,只有自有资金充足的企业可以直接得到银行的融资,自有资金不够充足的企业,需要通过银行-资产管理公司-企业的三方契约来获得融资,在企业的融资过程中需要接受资产管理公司的监督.同时银行与资产管理公司收益受到累计企业自有资金数量与累计银行信贷资金数量的影响.     

Do the differences in legal systems hinder international enterprises’ debt financing?

This study examines the impact of the differences in the legal system concerning obligation claim rights between host and multinational enterprises' (MNEs) home countries on bank credit financing by constructing a legal system distance index including four dimensions. Using 57,526 firm-year panel observations of 7,257 firms from 53 countries operating in China, the results find that legal system distance has a negative impact on foreign firms' debt financing. The influential mechanism is due to the increasing transaction costs. Further test finds that the negative effect declines as the cultural differences increase. The heterogeneity analysis finds that the negative impact of the legal system distance on the debt level is more pronounced for those foreign firms with a large scale, short operating age, not enough collateral, and sales in the domestic market, but shows no significant differences between a sole proprietorship and joint ventures. This study not only expands the literature on “Law and Finance” but also provides an implication for foreign firms' debt financing in the emerging host country.     

Why do Japanese firms prefer multiple bank relationship? Some evidence from firm-level data

We explore the determinants of the number of long-term bank relations of listed Japanese firms using a unique data set covering the sample period of 1982–1999. Japanese listed firms have about seven long-term bank loan relations on average, but show a large variation around the mean. We use data on loan and equity ownership to address the impact of the Japan-specific bank–firm relations and bank control on the number of loans decision. We find that having a relation with a top-equity holding bank increases the number of bank relations and debt-rich and cash-poor firms have more bank relations.     

Credit constraints and R&D over the boom and bust: Firm-level evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

This paper studies the effect of credit constraints on R&D over the recent boom and bust episode in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). Given that financial and venture capital markets in CEECs are thin in comparison to those in high-income economies, it is proposed that credit constraints have a significant adverse effect on R&D activity in these countries. The paper uses three waves of Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) data between 2005 and 2013 on manufacturing firms from ten CEECs. We find that credit constraints have a substantial effect on R&D engagement, as the probability of credit constrained firms undertaking R&D activities is around 30 % lower than for other firms. The adverse effect of credit constraints for R&D emerges during the years of fast economic growth.     

Financial fragility,sovereign default risk and the limits to commercial bank bail-outs

We show that with intertwined weak banks and weak sovereigns, bank recapitalizations become much less effective. We construct a DSGE model with leverage constrained banks lending to firms and holding domestic government bonds. Bond prices reflect endogenously generated sovereign risk. This introduces a negative amplification cycle: after a credit crisis output losses increase more because higher interest rates trigger lower bond prices and subsequent losses at banks. This further tightens bank leverage constraints, and causes interest rates to rise further. Also bank recapitalizations are then much less effective. Recaps involve swaps of newly issued sovereign bonds for bank equity, the new debt increases sovereign debt discounts, leading to capital losses for the banks on their holdings of sovereign debt that (partially) offset the impact of the recapitalization. The favorable macroeconomic effects of bank recaps on the recovery after a financial crisis are correspondingly lower.     

The number of banking relationships and the business cycle: New evidence from Colombia

We study the determinants of multiple bank–firm relationships using a uniquely rich data set comprised of information on individual loans of a large number of firms in Colombia. We control for firm-specific variables and find that the business cycle exerts important influence on the number of bank relationships sustained by firms. Our evidence suggests that the number of bank relationships is counter-cyclical, decreasing during macroeconomic expansions and increasing during contractions. However, this effect is stronger for large firms which have more access to alternative sources of funding.     

How Do Small Businesses Finance Their Growth Opportunities?—The Case of Recovery from the Lost Decade in Japan

Previous studies argue that bank loans are cheaper than trade credit, so less‐constrained firms largely depend on bank loans and use trade credit less, especially in financially developed economies. However, the Japanese evidence does not support this view. First, small businesses with higher credit demand increase trade credit more during the period of the recovery from a severe recession. Second, creditworthy firms also increase trade credit to finance their growth opportunities. Third, firms in unstable industries increase trade credit more. This suggests that suppliers are able to offer credit, unlike banks, as they have a relative advantage in day‐by‐day monitoring. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

会计信息对银行信贷决策影响的研究综述

银行的信息获取和处理能力将对其信贷决策的质量产生重要影响，会计信息作为一种交易型融资行为赖以发生的重要信息对银行信贷决策具有重要的价值，这在西方大量的研究中得以证明。国内外的学者在会计信息及其质量对银行信贷决策的影响进行了大量的研究，本文将围绕会计信息及其质量在银行贷款利率、贷款期限、贷款方式以及限制性条款等信贷决策方面的作用来梳理该领域的相关文献，以期对我国将来相关的理论研究和工作实践提供指导。     

Are small firms really credit constrained? Empirical evidence from Kosova

This article uses firm level data from an SME survey conducted by Riinvest Institute in 2006 in order to examine the determinants of obtaining bank finance conditional upon applying. The results of the survey show that not all the firms receive credit they apply for, suggesting a slight excess of demand over supply of credit. Unlike some other studies in transition economies this article corrects for sample selection bias. Econometric evidence indicates that commercial banks base their decision to loan firms primarily on the basis of collateral. Well performing firms are more likely to ask for credit because of better business prospects in the future, but profitability as a measure of firm performance does not seem to be sufficient signaling for banks in order to allocate credits. Banks seems to prefer more to secure themselves from likely opportunistic behavior of potentially “bad borrowers” with use of collateral. Findings are in line with theoretical and empirical arguments that systematic use of collateral can mitigate the adverse selection by banks in choosing whom to allocate the credit especially in country with turbulent political environment and weak property right system. However, unlike other studies findings suggest that the rhetoric of financial constraints to some extent has been exaggerated in a transition context.