This paper considers lending to finance projects in a setting where repayment enforcement appears impossible. The loan was illegal and thus legally unenforceable. Creditors were incapable of applying private coercion to force repayment. Borrowers lacked both collateral and reputation capital....

We study non-performing loan (NPL) resolution using proprietary data on NPL transactions in China. We find these transactions – driven by tighter financial regulation – are consistent with banks concealing non-performing assets from regulators as (i) transaction prices do not compensate for...

Using comprehensive loan-level data in China, we investigate how the deregulation on bank entry barriers alters local banking industrial organization and its economic consequences. We document a novel trade-off: the potential benefits of deregulation are adversely mitigated by entrant banks'...

Using proprietary individual level loan data, this paper explores the economic consequences of the 2009 bank entry deregulation in China. Such deregulation leads to higher screening standards, lower interest rates, and lower delinquency rates for corporate loans from entrant banks. Consequently,...

Using comprehensive loan-level data in China, we investigate how the deregulation on bank entry barriers alters local banking industrial organisation and its economic consequences. We document a novel trade-off: the potential benefits of deregulation are adversely mitigated by entrant banks’...