Assessing Firms' Financing Constraints in Brazil

Claessens, Stijn ; Sakho, Yaye Seynabou

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO BANK;    ACCESS TO CREDIT;    ACCESS TO FINANCE;    ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES;    ACCESS TO FINANCING;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6624
RP-ID  :  WPS6624

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Firm surveys often indicate that firmscomplain a lot about lack of access to financial services,but financing constraints are difficult to identify, givendemand and supply considerations and with only surveys basedon firms' perceptions. Specifically, it is difficult toseparate demand for access to finance of viable firms withgood growth opportunities from that of firms that are notcreditworthy and should not deserve financing. In Brazil,one of the main constraints to finance is related to thehigh level of interest rates, which affects both bankfunding costs as well as bank intermediation spreads and, assuch, the cost of finance and hence the demand and supply ofbank financing. This paper analyzes a unique loan level dataset that covers almost a decade of monthly firm bankinformation from credit registry information that is notpublicly available as well as two cross-sections ofBrazil's Investment Climate Assessment surveys in 2004and 2008 that provide detailed information on firms'micro characteristics as well as perceptions of credit. Thedata allow identification of how firms'characteristics, banks' characteristics, and macrovariables affect firms' demand for credit, banks'supply of credit, and access to credit. The paper findsfirst that access to finance for firms has improved over thedecade for small firms, reflecting the deepening of thecredit markets. However, access to credit depends stronglyon information availability captured in the positiveinfluence of collateral and credit history. Banks perceivethat it is less risky to lend to firms that the banks knowor that other banks know. Second, firms' loan demand isinelastic to the interest rate at the individual loancategory level, possibly reflecting some screening andpricing; however, when the loans are aggregated, the effectof interest rates becomes significant and negative asexpected. Third, firmsloan demand and loan supply areaffected by the availability of collateral and, in the caseof loan demand, longer maturity. Policy implications pointto the importance of reducing asymmetric information betweenlenders and borrowers and on collateral to alleviatefinancing constraints for small firms.