We investigate whether and how shocks propagate through trade credit. We exploit a large negative liquidity shock to firms in the Brazilian food industry, resulting from the announcement of a fraud investigation named Operation Weak Flesh. Using a differences-in-differences analysis, we show...

We document that borrowers of banks that received capital support under TARP/CPP significantly increased their quarterly provision of trade credit (accounts receivable) during the crisis by 5.2 percent, while borrowers of other banks did not. The effect is strongest in 2008Q4, and larger for...

We propose and empirically test a novel trade credit channel through which the presence of foreign-owned firms can propagate international liquidity shocks to a local country despite its tight controls over portfolio flows. A well-documented advantage of foreign-owned firms, especially large...

We investigate informal financing such as trade credit in China. The credit for both state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs dramatically increased over time. Our results suggest that non-SOEs rely more on trade credit financing, but this effect is mitigated by supplier's liquidity position....

We explore how trade credit complements cash holdings in product market competition. First, similar to cash to cash flow sensitivity (Almeida, Campello, and Weisbach 2004), we report that trade credit is sensitive to internal cash flows and this sensitivity is moderated by firms' financial...

Informal finance plays an important role in transitional economies with weak legal institutions, like China. As a major informal finance instrument, trade credit relies on informal institutions and enforcement. We argue that religion enhances the ethical climate of business and predict that...

This paper examines differences in the use of trade credit by publicly listed firms and their privately held counterparts. We show that public firms maintain a significantly lower level of trade credit than private firms. This finding is consistent with the argument that public firms rely less...

We present evidence that restrictions to the set of feasible financial contracts affect buyer - supplier relationships and the organizational form of the firm. We exploit a regulation that restricted the maturity of the trade credit contracts that a large retailer could sign with some of its...

Trade credit is a widely adopted industry practice. Prior research has focused on how trade credit benefits firms by improving vertical supply chain relationships. This paper offers a novel perspective by examining whether trade credit benefits suppliers through a horizontal channel. Under the...

We examine how access to bank credit affects trade credit in the supplier-customer relationships of U.S. public firms. For identification, we use exogenous liquidity shocks to supplier firms in the form of staggered changes to interstate bank branching laws. Using a variety of tests, we show...