We address the question of how lending market competition, measured by the bargaining power of banks, affects the … agency costs of debt finance. It is shown that intensified lending market competition will lead to lower lending rates and … lending market competition will reduce the agency cost of debt financing. Hence, our analysis does not lend support to the …

market economies. The primary focus of the study is on competition and market structure, finance and the structure of lending … interpretation of the evidence on competition is that there is an initial move by firms into niches to exploit local market power …. -- Transition ; convergence ; market structure ; competition ; enterprise finance ; enterprise restructuring …