We show that laws and institutions that grant creditors stronger enforcement rights and bargaining power upon default increase expected recovery rates on collateral. Using unique data that provides ex-ante appraised liquidation values on secured loans for a single global bank, we estimate...

This paper provides evidence on the relationship between finance and high growth in China. Employing data for 27 Chinese provinces over the period 1995-2003, we assess the impact of banks and non-bank financial institutions on local economic growth. We argue that banks have had a larger impact...

The recent financial crisis has reopened the debate on the impact of informal and formal finance on firm growth in developing countries. Using unique survey data, we find that in-formal finance is associated with higher sales growth for small firms and lower sales growth for large firms. We...

Using a novel way to identify relationship and transaction banks, we study how banks' lending techniques affect funding to SMEs over the business cycle. For 21 countries we link the lending techniques that banks use in the direct vicinity of firms to these firms' credit constraints at two...

It is well recognized that relationship banking helps to relieve the credit constraints faced by SMEs to access bank finance. Trust is an important part of relationship banking. However, the term trust is nebulous, and relationship banking means different things to different banks and different...

In the race against climate change, financial intermediaries hold a key role in rapidly redirecting resources towards greener economic activities. However, this transition entails a dilemma for banks: entry of innovative and green firms in polluting industries risks devaluating legacy positions...

What is the impact of environmental consciousness (i.e., being green) as borrower and as lender on loan rates? We investigate this question employing an international sample of syndicated loans over the period 2011-2019. We find that green firms borrow at a signifi- cantly lower spread,...

Robust (cross-border) interbank markets are important for the well functioning of modern financial systems. Yet, a network of interbank exposures may lead to domino effects following the event of an initial bank failure. The structure of the interbank market is a potential important driving...

This paper studies the impact of bank mergers on firm-bank lending relationships using information from individual loan contracts in Belgium. We analyse the effects of bank mergers on the probability of borrowers maintaining their lending relationships and on their ability to continue tapping...

Assessing the impacts of bank mergers on small firms requires separating borrowers with single versus multiple banking relationships and distinguishing the three alternatives of "staying," "dropping," and "switching" of relationship. Single-relationship borrowers who "switch" to another bank...