The theoretical literature has identified potential benefits and costs of close bank-firm relationships for both parties, suggesting possible reasons for firms being captured by banks and vice versa. In this paper we empirically explore the effects of long-lasting credit relationships on...

In this paper we explore the effects of bank-borrower physical proximity on price and non-price aspects of small business lending in local credit markets. Along the price dimension, our analysis reveals that interest rates increase with bank-borrower distance and decrease with the distance...

In the wake of the global crisis the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased its exposure to low-and middle-income countries and boosted the overhaul of its lending approach to enhance its role in preventing crises. This paper tests whether IMF lending has targeted countries most affected by...

Traditional banks have proved to have severe limits in mitigating financial exclusion. The microfinance revolution is intended to address this problem by devising new approaches which ease credit access for poor and uncollateralized borrowers. In this introductory essay we present a special...

In many countries, Mutual Loan-Guarantee Societies (MLGSs) are assuming ever-increasing importance for small business lending. In this paper we provide a theory to rationalise the raison d'etre of MLGSs. The basic intuition is that the foundation for MLGSs lies in the inefficiencies created by...

For many countries, remittance behaviour by migrants is an important component of their overall international financial flows. The empirical literature has, so far, analysed the propensity to remit as a function of migrants' socio-economic characteristics. However, no studies have fully...

In this paper we study the relevance of the gender of the contracting parties involved in lending. We show that female entrepreneurs face tighter access to credit, even though they do not pay higher interest rates. The effect is independent of the information available about the borrower and...

Does participation in inter-firm networks make access to credit easier for firms? Is finance a motivation driving the formation of inter-firm networks? During the last twenty years these two questions have been hotly debated by economists both theoretically and empirically. In this paper, we...

A recent study by Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz (2006) has provided evidence of substitutability between remittances and financial development in fostering economic growth in developing countries. In this paper, we introduce a new qualitative inefficiency indicator of the domestic banking system and...

In some European countries, the liberalization of the motor insurance market occurred in the 1990s led to increasing fares and claims with profits staying stable or decreasing. In this paper, we argue that these phenomena are due to the impact of liberalization on the companies' optimal choices....