During 1992–2007, suppliers financed almost 10% of the total assets of U.S. listed firms. This intensive usage of trade credit is puzzling in the light of its high (implicit) costs. By arguing that trade credit use provides valuable information to outside investors, we first derive a...

Two dysfunctions can affect the credit market: credit rationing and firm's discouragement. While the former has been studied in detail for more than 40 years, the latter has only been in the spotlight since 2003. In this work, we contribute to the understanding of this “demand-side failure”...

This paper tests for the presence of long memory and nonlinearity in returns and volatility for six agricultural futures daily prices series, three traded on MATIF Euronext (Wheat, Corn & Rapeseed) and three traded on CBOT (Red Winter Wheat, Corn & Soybean) over the period from 2000 to 2010. If...

This paper investigates whether loan officer's level of seniority within the bank explains credit spreads. Based on a unique hand-collected database on loan applications from SMEs to a French cooperative bank between 1996 and 2009, the study suggests that senior loan officers charge higher...

Do creditor rights influence the use of relationship lending? With data from EFIGE, gathered during a 2010 survey spanning seven European countries, this article addresses this question. First, it determines that banks and firms are more willing to implement relationship lending technology in...

There is evidence of a gender gap in access to finance. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that corruption discourages more female than male entrepreneurs from applying for credit. We use data on access to credit and corruption at the firm level for a large dataset of firms from 68 countries...

We investigate the relationship between borrower quality and the structure of the pool of banks. First, we develop a theoretical model where the size of the banking pool is a credible signal of firm quality. We argue that better borrowers seek to disclose their quality in a credible way through...