定向降准、贷款可得性与小微企业商业信用——基于断点回归的经验证据

小微企业在我国经济发展中起到了重要作用,但由于长期面临融资约束问题,使其不得不诉诸非正式制度(如商业信用)来缓解融资困难。党的十九届五中全会明确提出,支持小微企业成长为创新重要发源地,完善促进小微企业发展的政策体系。其中,实施“精准滴灌”式的货币政策,对小微企业成长尤为重要,是金融服务实体经济的必然要求。我国央行的定向降准政策激励银行向小微企业提供贷款,有利于疏通小微企业通过正式制度(如银行贷款)进行融资的渠道。本文基于定向降准这一自然实验,采用断点回归设计,评估贷款可得性对小微企业商业信用的影响。研究发现:第一,正式制度对于非正式制度存在明显的替代效应,即小微企业贷款可得性上升以后,对商业信用的需求显著下降。第二,不同的模型设定与稳健性检验,均得到一致的结论。第三,贷款可得性提高对小微企业商业信用的影响因企业异质性而有所差异。本文研究为银行贷款与商业信用之间的替代关系提供了来自中国小微企业的证据,有助于理解定向降准政策对小微企业融资决策的影响,为扶持小微企业发展的政策制定提供参考。     

Bank credit constraints for women‐led SMEs: Self‐restraint or lender bias?

We test the existence of possible gender biases affecting firm behavior in demanding and obtaining bank credit using a cross‐country sample of European small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). We show consistent evidence that female‐led firms are more likely than their male counterparts to refrain from applying for loans. When they apply, female‐led enterprises do not seem to face gender discrimination from the lender. Interestingly, however, signs of gender bias appear to arise during the upside phase of the economy. Overall, our study provides support for policy actions aimed at reducing the frictions faced by women‐led SMEs when accessing credit markets.     

小微企业正规融资效果研究——基于匹配模型的估计

正确评价小微企业正规融资的效果,不仅有利于缓解小微企业“融资难”问题,对制定小微企业信贷相关支持政策也具有重要意义。本文基于四川省小微企业信贷调查数据,从盈利和就业两个角度,以匹配方法估计了正规融资对小微企业的影响。结论表明:第一,小微企业有效信贷需求已较好满足,简单认为“融资难”并不准确;第二,正规融资使小微企业各项利润指标得到不同程度改善,这在一定程度上说明小微企业正规融资是可持续的。另一方面,短期内正规融资并未促进小微企业就业增加。第三,分行业看,正规融资对小微企业就业增加的抑制作用主要体现在制造业,而服务业和其他行业无明显影响。     

小微企业正规融资效果研究——基于匹配模型的估计

正确评价小微企业正规融资的效果,不仅有利于缓解小微企业“融资难”问题,对制定小微企业信贷相关支持政策也具有重要意义。本文基于四川省小微企业信贷调查数据,从盈利和就业两个角度,以匹配方法估计了正规融资对小微企业的影响。结论表明:第一,小微企业有效信贷需求已较好满足,简单认为“融资难”并不准确;第二,正规融资使小微企业各项利润指标得到不同程度改善,这在一定程度上说明小微企业正规融资是可持续的。另一方面,短期内正规融资并未促进小微企业就业增加。第三,分行业看,正规融资对小微企业就业增加的抑制作用主要体现在制造业,而服务业和其他行业无明显影响。     

市场地位、商业信用与企业经营性融资

本文以2004—2010年我国A股上市公司数据为样本,检验企业市场地位对其商业信用及经营性融资的影响。研究发现,商业信用和银行借款都会向市场地位高的企业集中。进一步的研究还发现,企业商业信用融资和银行借款融资的"替代关系"在市场地位高的企业中更为显著,即市场地位高的企业同时可以获得来自商业信用和银行借款的融资;而二者的"替代关系"在市场地位低的企业中相对较低甚至不存在,由此突显出市场地位低的中、小企业融资困境,本文为我国亟待发展的"草根金融"及中小企业融资环境的改善提供了企业微观层面的实证支持。     

Ownership discrimination and private firms financing in China

This study examines the financing/funding of private firms in China. Our results show that private firms are significantly less funded through formal financing channels such as bank loans than state-owned firms, and hence have to resort to alternative financing such as trade credit. Consistent with the theoretical expectation and literature, there is a substitution effect between trade credit and bank loans for private firms, but this effect is much weaker compared to that of state-owned firms. Moreover, while the univariate comparisons indicate that private firms obtain more notes payable than state-owned firms, the multivariate regression analyses show that the relation between bank loan and notes payable is positive and indifferent between private and state-owned firms.     

Financing preferences and practices of Indian SMEs

Using survey data from 309 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from the northwest region of India, this study examines the financing preferences and practices of these SMEs. It also investigates the differences in the financing preferences across firm and owner/manager characteristics and documents the drivers of financing practices in India. Respondents prefer internal funds followed by bank financing mainly in the form of long-term loans and funds from government and financial institutions. Among informal sources, SMEs prefer trade credit followed by funds from family friends, relatives, and money lenders. The least preferred source of financing is external equity. The study contributes to the extant literature on SME financing by comparing the financing preferences and practices of SMEs and identifying a financing gap. By providing a holistic view of financing sources to SME owners and managers, the study can assist policymakers in designing appropriate policies for these individuals and help identify underutilized financing sources for SMEs.     

SME Financing in Emerging Markets: Firm Characteristics,Banking Structure and Institutions

Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey indicator database, we investigate (1) how firm characteristics affect financing of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets; (2) how cross-country differences in the banking sector affect SME financing; and (3) how financing of SMEs is influenced by economic development and institutions. Our findings confirm that younger and smaller firms in nonmanufacturing sectors consistently face severe financing obstacles/constraints and rely heavily on internal financing. Moreover, the availability of credit information and the bank concentration ratio, as well as economic development and the institutional environment, can significantly affect SME financing, and access to external financing in particular.     

稳健货币政策推动中小企业信贷状况改善——基于辽宁省的抽样调查

2011年我国实施稳健的货币政策,银行信贷规模收紧,信贷结构调整力度加大,信贷投放向中小企业倾斜,金融服务水平明显改善。抽样调查显示,辽宁省中小企业获取银行信贷总量持续增加,融资以银行短期信贷为主,融资成本呈下降走势。目前仍存在一些制约中小企业融资的因素,需要大力拓展中小企业直接融资渠道,积极实施金融创新,提高中小企业融资效率。     

Trade Credit,the Financial Crisis,and SME Access to Finance

Mounting evidence indicates that firms, particularly SMEs, suffered from a significant credit crunch during this crisis. We analyze for the first time whether trade credit provided an alternative source of external finance to SMEs during the crisis. Using firm‐level Spanish data we find that credit constrained SMEs depend on trade credit, but not bank loans, and that the intensity of this dependence increased during the financial crisis. Unconstrained firms, in contrast, are dependent on bank loans but not on trade credit.     

The Determinants of Corporate Trade Credit Policies in a Bank‐dominated Financial Environment: the Case of Finnish Small Firms

This paper examines trade credit policies of small firms operating in a bank‐dominated environment (Finland). We find that creditworthiness and access to capital markets are important determinants of trade credit extended by sellers. The level of purchases is positively correlated with the level of accounts payable. Larger and older firms and firms with strong internal financing are less likely to use trade credit, whereas firms with a high ratio of current assets to total assets, and firms subject to loan restructurings use it more. Negative loan decisions by financial intermediaries increase and a close bank‐borrower relationship decreases the probability that a firm does not take advantage of trade credit discounts.     

Does bank market power affect SME financing constraints?

This paper examines the extent to which bank market power alleviates or magnifies SME credit constraints using a large panel dataset of more than 118,000 SMEs across 20 European countries over the period 2005–2008. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine bank market power and SME credit constraints in an international, developed economy setting. Moreover, our study is the first to address a number of econometric considerations simultaneously, in particular by controlling for the availability of profitable investment opportunities using a structural Q model of investment. Our results strongly support the market power hypothesis, namely, that increased market power results in increased financing constraints for SMEs. Additionally, we find that the relationship exhibits heterogeneity across firm size and opacity in a manner that suggests that the true relationship between bank market power and financing constraints might not be fully explained by the existing theory. Finally, we find that the effect of bank market power on financing constraints increases in financial systems that are more bank dependent.     

Why do small businesses have difficulty in accessing bank financing?

This study investigates bank financing to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and evaluates whether the difficulties of SMEs in accessing bank financing during a period of financial crisis are due to a reduction in the supply of credit, or to a decrease in the demand for credit. The results show that the macroeconomic setting matters: demand effects are unlikely to drive the decline in the stock of bank loans, while the supply of credit causes SMEs difficulties in accessing bank credit. During a crisis period, in particular, an increase in the risk of lenders leads to the reduced supply of credit and credit rationing (i.e. the bank lending channel). In a post-crisis period, SMEs with increased risk and decreased profits have great difficulties in securing bank loans (i.e. the borrower balance sheet channel). Taken together, these results suggest that supply effects initially emerge through the bank-lending channel and then shift to the borrower balance sheet channel over a period of financial crisis.     

Is there a gender effect on the cost of bank financing?

In this paper, we address the question of whether the gender of a firm’s leader affects the cost of bank funding faced by small and medium enterprises in Europe. Using a large sample of observations of non-financial firms, during the years 2009–2013, we empirically test for the presence of discrimination, comparing female-led and male-led firms. After controlling for a rich set of variables and addressing potential endogeneity, our results show that i) female-led enterprises are more likely to face worse price conditions for bank financing compared to their male-led counterparts and, ii) firms whose leadership changes from female to male are more likely to benefit from an improvement in interest rate levels. This evidence is robust to different model specifications and various methodological approaches. The existence of such bias in the credit markets highlights the need of policy measures addressing female-led businesses, thus reducing their bank financing burdens and enhancing their entrepreneurial opportunities.     

The effect of firm characteristics in accessing credit for SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in socio-economic development. Despite their significance, the failure rate for SMEs is considerably high, especially in developing economies. Among the widely pronounced reasons for the high failure rate is non-availability of external financing. This study examines various firm attributes that affect access to credit using a sample of 970 SMEs that operate across nine provinces of Mediterranean and Southeast Anatolia regions in Turkey. The results suggest that asset size, sales volume and stability, export rate, and legal form are important determinants of satisfaction with bank products and services. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that larger firms with high and stable sales revenues are more likely to have better access to and therefore benefit more from credit services offered by their local banks.     

SME financing and the choice of lending technology in Italy: Complementarity or substitutability?

This paper investigates SME financing in Italy. The literature distinguishes between two main different lending technologies (LTs) for SMEs: transactional and relationship LTs. We find that banks lend to SMEs by using both LTs together, independently of the size and proximity of borrowers. Moreover, we show that the use of soft information decreases the probability of firms being credit rationed. Finally, we find that more soft information is produced when the bank uses relationship LT as primary technology individually or coupled with transactional LT. Our results support the view that LTs can be complementary, but reject the hypothesis that substitutability among LTs is somehow possible for outsiders by means of hardening of soft information.     

媒体报道的信息中介作用:来自我国银行授信的证据

本文基于中国上市公司的媒体报道数据,实证检验了媒体报道对企业获取银行授信的影响。研究发现,在整体上,新闻媒体发挥了重要的信息中介作用;媒体关注度越高、正面报道倾向越强,企业越容易获取银行授信。进一步研究表明,媒体报道对银行授信的作用主要存在于非国有企业、市场化程度高的地区和资产负债率高的企业中;媒体报道对银行授信的影响存在一定的中长期效应;与负面报道相比,媒体正面报道在银行授信中的作用更为显著。本文不仅丰富了媒体报道与银行授信领域的研究,而且为新闻媒体信息中介作用的有效发挥提供了政策启示。     

Is there an employee-based gender gap in informal financial markets? International evidence

We study the impact of female production workers on firms' access to trade credits across the world. Using two sources of plausibly exogenous variations in gender bias and a difference-in-differences framework, we document that firms with more female production workers have less access to trade credits in countries with stronger gender beliefs that favor males. This relationship is largely driven by firms in industries with unexpected credit shortages and industries dominated by males. Since female firms rely more on informal finance, this study is relevant for policies that direct female firms towards formal credit markets in highly gender-biased places.     

Venture capital certification of small and medium-sized enterprises towards banks: evidence from China

Through a proprietary dataset of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), we examine the impact of venture capital (VC) backup on access to bank loans by SMEs. We find that VC backup can help SMEs obtain more bank loans under better conditions and significantly relieve their financing constraint. This is especially meaningful for private SMEs, those in high-tech, in regions of less-developed banking industry, or with lower quality accounting information. This study may have policy implications as a pilot ‘combined debt-equity financing’ discussion in the context of the largest bank-based economy.     

How Do Firms Choose Between Intermediary and Supplier Finance?

This paper examines firms’ short‐term financing choices between intermediated loans and trade credit. I test two sets of empirical hypotheses: 1) hypotheses concerning the cross‐sectional differences in the level of intermediary finance for firms that use different levels of trade credit and 2) hypotheses concerning the dynamics of trade credit growth. I find strong evidence that for firms with high agency costs, the use of trade credit facilitates access to conventional bank loans. The evidence is consistent with theories based on the signaling role of trade credit provision and suppliers’ liquidation advantage.