Financial frictions can reduce aggregate productivity, in particular when firms with high productivity cannot borrow against their profits. This paper investigates the quantitative importance of this form of borrowing constraint using a large panel of firms in Japan. The firms are young and unlisted, precisely the firms for which credit frictions are expected to be the most severe. In this data...

Do credit market conditions affect corporate capital structures? In an attempt to answer this question, I study two natural experiments that affect corporate access to bank credit: the 1961 expansion of bank credit due to the emergence of the market for CDs, and the contraction associated with the 1966 credit crunch. I document several capital structure reactions to these changes in credit mark...

We show that easier access to mortgage credit significantly increases house prices by using exogenous changes in the conforming loan limit as an instrument for easier credit supply and cheaper cost of credit. We find that houses that become eligible for financing with a conforming loan show an increase in house value of 1.1 dollars per square foot (for an average price per square foot of 224 do...

BACKGROUND Rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) involve group financial self-help activities. These voluntary financial cooperative associations-mujin in Japanese-are found in some rural areas of Japan. Cross-sectional evidence suggests that active participation in mujin correlates with rich social capital and better functional capacities among older adults. However, the effect of ...

This paper studies the determinants and behavior of outstanding mortgage loan to value (LTV) ratios for a panel data set of 8867 Dutch households over the period 1992-2005. We find that outstanding LTVs are driven by household characteristics, life-cycle effects and mortgage type characteristics. LTV declines with the time elapsed since mortgage commencement, but this decline is faster for soca...

Seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) are sales of stock after the initial public offering. They are a means to raise funds through the sale of stock rather than the issuance of additional debt. We propose a method to predict the characteristics of firms that undertake this form of financing. Our procedure is based on logistic regression where firm-specific variables are obtained from the perspectiv...

Because sex ratios at birth have risen sharply in China in recent decades, an increasing proportion of men will be unable to find a bride, and will face old age without the support of a wife and children. We project the proportions of never-married men and their geographical distribution in China in the coming decades. Our projections assume that two tendencies in current marriage patterns will...

The contribution of this paper is in emphasizing endogenous credit rationing in the analysis of effects of bankruptcy rules on entrepeneurs’ decisions with respect to risktaking and ex ante skill-development. Unlike most of the literature, both the debt claim and the amount of debt financing is endogenous in our exercise. This allows us to determine the extent of credit rationing that banks use...

This paper is focused on the analysis and comparison of liquidity ratios and asset liability management practices in top three banks from public, private and foreign sector in India. The analysis is based upon the liquidity ratios calculation and the determination of maturity gap profiles for the banks under study. The paper also compares these banks maturity gap profiles with their correspondi...