Search

Does a women-friendly legal environment help women overcome discrimination in credit markets? By examining antidiscrimination laws and their implications for women-led businesses' access to credit in 124 countries, the current study differentiates an effect on discouragement (i.e., not asking for credit when they need it, demand side) and an effect on the probability that they obtain credit (supply side). Legal protections are associated with lower discouragement for women-led firms, but they do not support the attainment of more credit. We demonstrate that enforcement efforts dramatically amplify the effect of women-friendly laws on self-restrictions in terms of credit and enable women-led firms to access more credit. Women are sensitive to the legal environment in which they operate, while banks need strong incentives to change their behavior. This effect is notable with regard to rational discouragement and prevails among smaller firms and in high-income countries. These results are robust to several tests.

An all-or-nothing view of financial access leading to overly simplistic policy recommendations has been largely overturned in the data. Heterogeneity and explicit obstacles to trade are key aspects that need to be incorporated into models when looking at intermediate outcomes in the data. Networks in particular can amplify or work against policy interventions and do so in different directions for different groups at the same time. Work on village money markets allows us to better understand how these networks function, and how and why they can change with policy interventions. Nevertheless, though village economies are as sophisticated as those in New York financial markets, both suffer from familiar problems. One is reliance on relationships that segment markets and limit more universal benefits. A second problem is market contagion. Policy interventions facilitating financial access and the functioning of markets need to be guided by this stricter yet more realistic view.

This paper investigates the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on firms’ performance and financial vulnerability. Exploiting longitudinal firm-level data from the World Bank’s “Enterprise Surveys follow-up on COVID-19” for 20 European countries, we assess whether green management quality and pre-pandemic credit access difficulties affect firms’ ability to withstand the negative impact of the pandemic. Our results indicate that green firms are more resilient to the pandemic shock. In particular, the likelihood of pandemic-induced drops in sales and liquidity significantly decreases as the quality of green management improves. Conversely, prior financing constraints strongly exacerbate the pandemic’s impact on firms’ performance and amplify liquidity stress and financing problems. Credit-constrained enterprises are not only more likely to experience liquidity shortages and repayment problems, but they also face higher difficulties in accessing bank financing. The COVID-19 crisis has also hampered the beneficial role that green management exerted on access to credit in the pre-pandemic period. During the pandemic, firms with sound environmental management practices do not benefit from improved access to finance and have a lower demand for credit, possibly suggesting a slowdown in their green investment activities.

Modern agricultural technologies hold huge potential for increasing productivity and reducing poverty in developing countries. However, adoption levels of these technologies have remained disappointingly low in Africa. This paper analyzes the effect of access to credit on the likelihood of adoption and use intensity of chemical fertilizers using data from large rural surveys in Ethiopia. Using a heteroscedasticity-based identification strategy to address the endogenous nature of access to credit, we find that access to credit has significant positive effects on adoption and intensity of use of chemical fertilizers. However, important heterogeneities are observed. Credit obtained from formal sources is more important for the intensity of use than for the decision to adopt chemical fertilizers. Credit taken with the primary purpose of financing agricultural inputs is more likely to promote adoption of chemical fertilizers than credit taken per se. Furthermore, reported credit effects are larger when estimated against the sample of credit-constrained non-users as compared with the pool of the whole sample of credit non-users. The results remain robust to several sensitivity analyses. Our results yield useful implications for the design, promotion, and targeting of credit services to leverage their effect on adoption of agricultural technologies.

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that determine micro- and small-scale enterprises’ financing preference in line with pecking order theory and access to credit in Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State of Ethiopia. The study used primary data collected using cross-sectional survey questionnaire. The sample of this study was 296 enterprises selected using proportional stratified random sampling technique. The data were analyzed using descriptive and logistic regression analysis. The results of probit estimation revealed that business experience, collateral, gender, motivation and enterprises’ sectoral engagement affect financing preference. To investigate access to credit determinants, only enterprises that need to raise capital through credit were considered. The empirical results, therefore, revealed that business experience, size, sectoral engagement, collateral, interest rate, loan repayment period, and preparation of business plan, financial reporting, location and educational background of entrepreneurs affect access to credit of enterprises. Before any generalization of the results can be made, more evidence is needed on enterprises’ financing preference and access to credit determinants for the fact that the empirical tests were conducted only on 296 entrepreneurs since 2019. Therefore, the findings are valid and practicable only for the entrepreneurs under the study and the results cannot be assumed to extend beyond this group of entrepreneurs to different study periods. The study makes an original contribution to the literature of small business finance by investigating determinants of micro- and small-scale enterprises’ financing preference and access to credit in Benishangul Gumuz Regional State of Ethiopia as a developing country.

We theoretically and empirically investigate the effects of access to credit on local growth using a Schumpeterian growth model and assuming monopolistic competition between differentiated products of the banking system. We show that access to credit exerts a positive effect on local economic growth. To validate the theoretical prediction we use data on firms and bank branches from 18 emerging European economies. - 2017 Elsevier Inc. Scopus

Many countries have seen a rising demand for forest policy reform. This paper explores the effects of China’s forestland mortgage policy, a supporting measure for collective forest tenure reform, on household credit access. In theory, the forestland mortgage policy could have three impacts on households: (1) forestland possession could change households’ willingness to access credit (2) forestland possession could enhance household access to credit, and (3) the contract structure follows the theoretical predictions of the credit contract design mechanism. Our results show that households’ willingness to enroll in the mortgage policy as well as their potential to obtain credit increased when households possessed larger areas of forestland. However, the proportion of households that successfully obtained credit were fairly modest. Meanwhile, we found a positive relationship between collateralized forestland and the amount of the forestland mortgage loan, and a negative relationship between collateralized forestland and the interest rate. These findings are consistent with the theoretical predictions of the contract mechanism design. The existing forestland mortgage policy has increased households’ credit access to some extent; however, there is much room for improvement from a policy perspective. This requires divising policy arrangements that would facilitate a fully developed credit market available to households. Forest tenure mortgage loans alone may not be able to fully meet households’ financial needs.

International audience; The recent expansion of Islamic banks raises questions on its economic implications. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of Islamic banking development on access to credit. We combine data from a unique hand-collected database that covers Islamic banks with firm-level data covering developing and emerging countries over the period of 2006 to 2009. We find that Islamic banking development has overall no impact on credit constraints, while banking development and conventional banking development alleviate obstacles to financing. However Islamic banking development exerts a positive impact on access to credit when conventional banking development is low. Hence we support the view that Islamic banking does not overall alleviate obstacles to financing, but it can act as substitute to conventional banking

After experiencing a period of spectacular growth during the late nineteenth century, the Egyptian cotton sector underwent a phase of stagnation, which was followed by a gradual and steady increase in output during the interwar period. Drawing on a new panel dataset at the province–year level, this article explores the determinants of the upturn in cotton output, running a horserace between credit, seed technology, and infrastructure. In order to address endogeneity concerns, an instrumental variable approach is adopted, using a modified version of Bartik's shift-share instrumental variable. Our results provide supporting evidence that peasants switched to a lower-yielding cotton variety as a response to changes in relative price. Moreover, our production function estimates show that two key factors had a positive impact on output growth: credit availability and the adoption of new cotton varieties.

Using a unique proprietary dataset from a large European commercial bank containing granular loan-level information on credit lines to mid-corporate firms, we investigate the bank’s decisions to allow firms to retain existing credit at a time of acute financial instability. Our results highlight the importance of bank-firm relationships during crisis times. Existing borrowers who actively used their credit lines were not rationed, unless they posed an increased credit risk. We do not find evidence of evergreening practices.

Improving productivity among farm enterprises is important, especially in low-income countries where market imperfections are pervasive and resources are scarce. Relaxing credit constraints can increase the productivity of farmers. Using a field experiment involving in Bangladesh, we estimated the impact of access to credit on the overall productivity of rice farmers, and disentangled the total effect into technological change (frontier shift) and technical efficiency changes. We found that relative to the baseline rice output per decimal, access to credit resulted in, on average, approximately a 14 percent increase in yield, holding all other inputs constant. After decomposing the total effect into the frontier shift and efficiency improvement, we found that, on average, around 11 percent of the increase in output came from changes in technology, or frontier shift, while the remaining 3 percent was attributed to improvements in technical efficiency. The efficiency gain was higher for modern hybrid rice varieties, and almost zero for traditional rice varieties. Within the treatment group, the effect was greater among pure tenant and mixed-tenant farm households compared with farmers that only cultivated their own land.

Measuring access to finance represents an important challenge in empirical studies. Due to data limitations, perception‐based indicators or the usage of finance are often used as approximations of access to finance. However, these approximations disregard firm‐specific differences in the demand for finance. We derive a direct measure of access to credit from firm‐level survey data and explicitly model credit demand. We study the determinants of access to credit and disentangle, in contrast to other measures, their effects on demand for and access to credit. We find that the usage of credit is not a sufficient approximation, while perception‐based indicators are surprisingly precise.

This paper investigates the impact of family ownership on credit rationing using a rich sample of Italian firms. Estimation results indicate that family owned firms are more likely to experience credit restrictions. The adverse impact of family ownership on credit rationing is particularly relevant for small-sized firms, whereas it is mitigated in firms with closer lending relationships. Finally, we find some evidence that family firms with high ownership concentration are more likely to be rationed by banks.

We use firm-level data from six Central and Eastern European economies to examine whether political connections ease financial constraints faced by firms. We show that politically connected firms are characterized by higher leverage, lower profitability, and lower productivity of capital than unconnected firms. However, we do not find any significant difference in investment rates between them. Politically connected firms, though less productive than unconnected firms, borrow more because they have easier access to credit. Our results are consistent with the idea that political connections distort capital allocation and may have welfare costs.

While the preventive effect of loan modifications on mortgage default has been well-documented, evidence on the broad consequences of modifications has been fairly limited. Based on two unique loan-level data sets with borrower credit profiles, this study reports novel empirical evidence on how homeowners manage their credit before and after receiving modifications. The paper has several main findings. First, loan modifications improve borrowers’ overall credit standing and access to credit. Modifications that provide principal reduction, rate reduction, or greater payment relief, as well as those received by borrowers not in financial catastrophe, lead to a larger improvement in borrowers’ credit rating than others. Second, loan modifications lead to a slight increase in borrowers’ debts, primarily on home equity line of credit accounts and auto loans. Third, borrowers’ performance on nonmortgage accounts, however, has not been negatively impacted by modifications. This study demonstrates that interventions designed to improve household balance sheets could have a direct and sizeable impact on borrower financial outcomes.

This paper analyzes those potential opportunities that the Russian government could use over the recent years for the regulation of the banks' access to credit market, namely, the privatization or nationalization of banks, facilitating increases in their size, and the variation of deposit insurance coverage. For each option of government regulation we conduct an empirical estimation of the influence that this exact option could have on the stability of banking system, taking into account the imperfection of competition on credit market. Special attention was paid on the estimation of thresholds that could separate positive and negative influence of each regulating option on system stability. Estimates were made on the basis of panel dataset covering balance sheets and profit and loss accounts of all Russian banks that disclosed these data through the Bank of Russia's web-site during 2004 Q1 - 2012 Q4, i.e. before the change of the Head of the Bank of Russia. Our estimations have shown that in order to support stability of banking system during the period analyzed (in-sample) and in 2013-2016 (out-of-sample, in case no internal or external shocks heat the economy) the Russian government, the Bank of Russia and the Deposit Insurance Agency could - taking the levels of banks' market power and credit risk distribution as exogenous - first of all increase the government investments in capital of state-owned banks. Second, they could raise the minimal capital requirements on already operating banks (on RUB 50-100 ml annually during 2013-2016). Third, they could allow decreasing the minimal deposit insurance coverage.

Using data for a large sample of small firms collected through the 8th UniCredit Survey conducted in 2011, we investigate the extent to which banks of different size reward innovative firms, in terms of both access to lending and volume of credit granted. We find that more innovative firms are associated with weak credit rationing. Using instrumental variable techniques to manage the endogenous nature of innovation, we show that a large bank more strongly supports product innovation, whereas there is no substantial difference in the extent to which small and large banks provide credit to small firms undertaking process innovations.

Due to deregulation and financial liberalization, Latin American countries have recently undertaken bank restructuring and consolidation processes. This paper investigates firm access to credit in the region, focusing on the role of the credit market structure. Through an empirical investigation based on the World Bank Enterprise Survey, we find that access to bank credit is very heterogeneous. On average, smaller and less productive firms are less likely to apply for credit and more likely to be financially constrained. Besides, a high degree of bank penetration and competition is significantly correlated with a lower probability that borrowers are financially constrained. Finally, foreign banks penetration has a negative effect on access to credit particularly in less developed and more concentrated markets, while it has a positive influence in more competitive and financially developed markets.

Using firm-level survey responses from 2009 to 2012, we examine whether competitors from the informal sector affect the credit constraints of registered SMEs in 86 countries worldwide. We also investigate the role played by the quality of institutional environment in exacerbating or in alleviating such effect. A weak quality of institutional environment strengthens inter-linkages between the formal and the informal sectors, increases the costs and decreases the benefits assumed by formal firms, and reduces the costs attributed to informality. Moreover, it also results in a large informal economy, which influences perceptions about the substitutability between formal and informal goods, and law evasion. Our findings indicate that registered SMEs facing competition from informal firms are more likely to be credit-constrained than other formal SMEs that are not confronted with such competition. This result is consistent with the "parasite" view and the entrepreneurial perspective of informality, which assert that informal firms are capable of competing against registered SMEs and hurting the latter's profits. Further, we find that such adverse impact manifests only in countries with weak rule of law and high degree of corruption and bureaucracy. Our results also show that registered micro and small firms are more likely to be affected by the presence of informal firm competitors than medium-sized firms. This is because the benefits of formality that include access to credit from financial institutions, increase with firm size. On the whole, our findings suggest that governments must enhance their role in increasing access to credit to smaller firms and in providing incentives for informal firms to be integrated in the formal economy. Moreover, in order to achieve inclusive growth, our results highlight the importance of improving the business environment, which affects all entrepreneurs.

Debt collection is an important part of the consumer credit ecosystem, but has received little attention in the economics literature. Regulations on collection practices can protect consumers, but may also lead to unintended consequences if the costs of better practices are passed on to creditors, who in turn restrict consumers’ credit access or raise prices. Using detailed data on new credit card accounts, we study the effects of recent laws and regulations in four states that instituted conduct restrictions. We find that such restrictions reduce access to credit card accounts and raise interest rates, but that this effect is very small.

This paper analyses the role of lending technologies and banking relationships on firms’ credit access in Italy. Using EFIGE firm-level data, we show that the depth and strength of firm–bank relati...

In this study, we analyze the impact of access to credit on farmland rental market participation of rural households. The study uses a nationally representative survey data of China Family Panel Studies and an endogenous switching probit model that accounts for selection bias for both observed and unobserved factors. Findings reveal that access to credit stimulates farmers' decisions to participate in farmland rental markets by increasing the likelihood of renting in and renting out farmland by about 10% and 20%, respectively. Results also reveal that the impact of access to credit on farmland rental market participation is heterogeneous when it comes to the age of the operator and and geographic locations of farmers. We show that younger credit users have a higher probability of renting in farmland, while their older counterparts have a higher probability of renting out farmland. Besides, credit users residing in central China have a higher probability of renting in farmland, while those living in eastern China have a higher likelihood of renting out farmland. Our findings highlight the importance of improving farmers' access to credit in facilitating the development of rural farmland rental markets.

Several emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) embracing financial liberalization have seen a growing presence of foreign banks in their countries over the last two decades. While foreign banks can contribute to reduced costs of financial intermediation which could result in increased credit availability, there is greater ambiguity about the relationship between foreign bank presence and firms’ access to credit. In this paper, we combine both disaggregate firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) as well as country-data to construct a novel and comprehensive measure capturing firms’ credit constraints as well as information verifiability for firms. Using a firm-level sample of 37,578 observations representing 60 EMDEs covering the time period 2006 to 2014, we employ an ordered probit model on cross-sectional data to understand empirically how foreign banks affect firms’ access to credit. Our results show evidence for foreign bank presence tending to ease firms’ credit constraints. We also find that firms with audited financial statements tend to experience a reduction in credit constraints. Finally, our results point out that for micro, small and medium firms, in relation to the large firms, greater information availability through audited financial statements jointly associated with greater foreign bank presence tends to ease firm credit constraints.

This paper examines the impact of risk-sensitive Basel regulations on debt financing of firms around the world. It investigates how firms cope with the impact through adjustments to their financing sources and capital investments. We find that the implementation of Basel II regulations is associated with reduced credit availability for lower-rated firms. Such firms mitigate the shortage in bank credit through increased reliance on accounts payable, lower payouts to shareholders, and reduced capital investments. The impact of the capital regulation is lower in countries that rely on the internal ratings-based approach. The key results are robust to controls for banking crises, bank-specific controls, and the inclusion of loan-level information. The findings of this paper substantially contribute to the understanding of the real effects of risk-sensitive bank capital regulations.

In this era of rapidly increasing food demand, a sustainable food supply is required to meet such demand. This suggests that capital investment through adequate access to credit is needed to develop the agricultural sector in developing countries including Lesotho. Therefore, this paper examined farmers’ access to credit and its impact on farm income using a three-stage model, namely: Probit, Tobit, and propensity score matching. The study was conducted in Lesotho with a sample size of 100 farmers. The empirical results reveal that access to credit increases net farm revenues by US$116.608 to US$136.894. Furthermore, savings, scale of production, membership of farmer associations and financial record keeping exert significant positive effects on access to credit, while higher interest rates reduce farmers’ likelihood of securing credit from a financial institution. We conclude that adequate access to credit is necessary to promote a sustainable agricultural development and the livelihoods of rural farmers in Africa.

Over the years 2000–2007, mortgage market underwriting conditions eased in response to public policy demands for increased homeownership. This easing of acceptable credit risk in order to accommodate increased access to credit, when coupled with the unanticipated house price declines during the Great Recession, resulted in substantial increases in delinquencies and foreclosures. The response to this mortgage market crisis led to myriad changes in the industry, including tightened underwriting standards and new market regulations. The result is a growing concern that credit standards are now too tight, restricting the recovery of the housing market. Faced with this history, policy analysts, regulators and industry participants have been forced to consider how best to balance the tension inherent in managing mortgage credit risk without unduly restricting access to credit. Our research is unique in providing explicit consideration of this trade-off in the context of mortgage underwriting. Using recent mortgage market data, we explore whether modern automated underwriting systems (AUS) can be used to extend credit to borrowers responsibly, with a particular focus on target populations that include minorities and those with low and moderate incomes. We find that modern AUS do offer a potentially valuable tool for balancing the tensions of extending credit at acceptable risks, either by using scorecards that mix through-the-cycle and stress scorecard approaches or by adjusting the cutpoint—more relaxed cutpoints allow for higher levels of default while providing more access, tighter cutpoints accept fewer borrowers while allowing less credit risk.

Using data at the bank–firm level collected through the 9th UniCredit Survey conducted in 2012 on a large sample of small businesses, we investigate the extent to which a large international bank offers better credit conditions to enterprises that use ICT more extensively. The results, which are robust to selection and endogeneity issues, show that banks tend to grant increasing volumes of credit to such enterprises. We interpret this evidence as the ceteris paribus effect of ICT adoption by small businesses on the quality of information transmitted to banks. Another possible interpretation is that banks consider ICT adoption as a signal of firms’ willingness to innovate. We also discuss implications concerning the key role that technology plays in changing the ‘arm’s length’ versus ‘relationship’ lending paradigms.

This study explores the role of access to credit in improving rice production in Sub-Saharan Africa using the case of rice farmers in the large-scale Mwea irrigation scheme in Kenya. Using household level survey data, we find that the use of fertiliser and paddy yield per hectare are not significantly different among borrowers from the cooperative society, borrowers from rice traders and non-borrowers. However, borrowers from rice traders receive lower incomes and profits compared with non-borrowers largely due to the higher interest charged. Considering that such farmers who borrow from rice traders are generally poorer in financial, physical, and human capital and would have even made lower income and profit without rice trader credit, we suggest policies to facilitate further development of credit markets for both efficiency and equity of rice production in Mwea.

Credit is highly demanded in different parts of the world, mainly for capital requirement to improve land, purchase of main agricultural inputs including fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, and purchase of farm machinery. The purpose of this study was to examine the farmers’ access to credit: does collateral matter or cash flow matter?—evidence from Sindh province of Pakistan. The random sampling technique was used to collected data from 300 rural households through a face-to-face interview. To find the important factors affecting access to credit in Sindh province of Pakistan, we performed descriptive statistics and probit regression model. The results of probit regression model showed that gender, household size, educational level, farming experience, farm size, income, and availability of collateral have positive effect on farmers’ access to credit, while age has a negative and statistically insignificant effect on the farmers’ access to credit. Therefore, this study recommended that institutional sources of credit (such as the ZTBL and other Commercial Banks) should improve their loaning schemes to better suit the diversified needs of small farmers.

Recent reforms across Eastern European countries have given more flexibility and information to parties to engage in secured debt transactions. The menu of assets legally accepted as collateral was enlarged to include movable assets (e.g., machinery and equipment). Generalized difference-in-differences tests show that firms operating more movable assets borrowed more as a result. Those firms also invested more, hired more, and became more efficient and profitable following the changes in the contracting environment. The financial deepening we document triggered important reallocation effects: firms affected by the reforms increased their share of fixed assets and employment in the economy.

This paper develops a model in which idea-rich, cash-poor entrepreneurs undertake risky investment projects that are subject to future liquidity needs and shirking due to moral hazard. The model suggests that the strength of the entrepreneur's incentive to shirk is countercyclical and that endogenous shirking adds volatility to the economy by increasing the persistence and volatility of TFP. This increase in persistence and volatility is driven by the variation in the number of successfully completed projects, compounded by the effect of the incentive to shirk on access to credit; changes in factor employment play only a minor role.

Access to external funds is crucial for the entry and expansion of entrepreneurial firms and the sectors they predominantly arise in. This paper reports four important results. First, comparative advantage is shaped by factor endowments as well as fundamental determinants of corporate finance. In particular, a larger equity ratio of firms and tough governance standards relax finance constraints, lead to entry of firms at the lower bound of the productivity distribution, and create an endogenous comparative advantage in sectors where entrepreneurial firms are clustered. Second, in such a setting, factor price equalization does not only depend on technological characteristics of goods production but also of financial intermediation. Third, a small degree of trade protection in the constrained sector can raise a country's welfare by relaxing finance constraints if terms of trade effects are small. Fourth, a small degree of protection of the financially dependent industry in a financially underdeveloped country might even raise world welfare

In this paper, we unveil a disregarded benefit of product market competition for firms. We introduce the probability of bankruptcy in a simple model where firms compete a la Cournot and apply for collateralized bank loans to undertake productive investments. We show that the number of competitors and the existence of outsiders willing to acquire the productive assets of distressed incumbents affect the equilibrium share of investment financed by bank credit. Using a sample of Italian manufacturing firms, mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we found evidence showing that the degree of product market competition is positively correlated with the share of investment financed by bank credit only when outsiders are absent.

Using data for a large sample of small firms collected through the 8th UniCredit Survey conducted in 2011, we investigate the extent to which banks of different size reward innovative firms, in terms of both access to lending and volume of credit granted. We find that more innovative firms are associated with weak credit rationing. Using instrumental variable techniques to manage the endogenous nature of innovation, we show that a large bank more strongly supports product innovation, whereas there is no substantial difference in the extent to which small and large banks provide credit to small firms undertaking process innovations.

Based on firm level data from 16 Sub-Saharan African countries we show how three different measures of credit constraints lead to three different estimates of gender differences in manufacturing firms’ credit situation. Using a perception based credit constraint measure female owned firms appear relatively more constrained than male owned firms. Using formal financial access data we find no gender effect. Finally, using direct information on credit constraints, male owned small firms appear disadvantaged. Furthermore we show a strong size gradient in the gender gap for the two measures for which we find significant gender differences.

Using a unique data set from the Czech Republic for 1994–2003, this study examines the relationship between technological spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) and firms’ access to external finance. The empirical analysis indicates that overall, Czech firms benefit little from technological spillovers from FDI. However, a closer look at the financing of domestic firms suggests that firms that have access to external finance enjoy larger benefits from the presence of foreign firms in their own industry or in downstream industries, through increased productivity. The results highlight the importance of financial-sector development and access to external financing to increasing the productivity and competitiveness of domestic firms through technological spillovers from FDI. Our finding suggests that well-developed financial markets may be needed in order to take full advantage of the benefits associated with FDI inflows.

Using a rich dataset from a commercial bank in Albania, we utilize the introduction of a public credit registry by the Albanian central bank in January 2008 as a natural experiment to analyze the effect of information sharing between lenders on (1) access to credit, (2) cost of credit, and (3) loan performance. Our results suggest that information sharing by means of a credit registry does not affect access to or cost of credit, but improves loan performance. Specifically, loans granted after the introduction of the credit registry are 3% points less likely of turning problematic, representing a 35% reduction of the overall sample average arrear probability. We further find that the effect is more pronounced for repeat borrowers and in areas, where competition is weak. This indicates that information sharing among lenders improves loan performance mainly by disciplining borrowers to repay in their concern about future access to credit.

In this paper, we investigate what happens to firms after they default on their bank loans. We approach this question by establishing a set of stylized facts concerning the evolution of corporate default and its resolution, focusing on access to credit after default. Using a unique dataset from Portugal, we observe that half of the corporate default episodes last 5 quarters. Most firms continue to have access to credit immediately after resolving default, though only a minority has access to new loans. Firms have more difficulties in regaining access to credit if they are small, if their default was long and severe, if they borrow from only one bank or if they default with their main lender. Further, half of the defaulting firms record another default in the future. We observe that firms with repeated defaults are, on average, smaller and experience longer and more severe defaults.

Although it is widely accepted that financial development is associated with higher growth, the evidence on the channels through which credit affects growth on the micro-level is scant. Using data from a cross section of Bulgarian firms, the authors estimate the impact of access to credit (as proxied by indicators of whether firms have access to a credit or overdraft facility) on productivity. To overcome potential omitted variable bias of OLS estimates, they use information on firms' past growth to instrument for access to credit. The authors find credit to be positively and strongly associated with total factor productivity. These results are robust to a wide range of robustness checks.

I present a model in which credit and outside money can be used as means of payment in order to analyze how access to credit affects welfare when credit markets feature limited participation. Allowing more agents to use credit has an ambiguous effect on welfare because it may make consumption-risk sharing more inefficient. I calibrate the model using U.S. data on credit-card transactions and show that the increase in access to credit from 1990 to the near present has had a slightly negative impact on welfare.