Information asymmetries and conflicts of interest are theorized to inflate the cost of external finance, but formal bank relationships are thought to ameliorate such problems and may even lead to excessive leverage. Bank oversight is associated with slightly higher leverage but not with greater use of bank debt. Older and cash-rich firms have lower leverage and less bank debt, suggesting that information problems affected firms' financing decisions; but bank attachment appears not to alter these patterns. The findings suggest that bank oversight had little to do with leverage decisions, particularly short-term borrowing, in the later stages of the German industrialization.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences in its series Working Papers with number
1030.
Length: 43 pages Date of creation: May 1998 Date of revision: Publication status: Published: Handle: RePEc:clt:sswopa:1030
Contact details of provider: Postal: Working Paper Assistant, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 228-77, Caltech, Pasadena CA 91125 Phone: 626 395-4065 Fax: 626 405-9841 Email: Web page: http://www.hss.caltech.edu/ss
Order Information: Postal: Working Paper Assistant, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 228-77, Caltech, Pasadena CA 91125 Email:
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Victoria Mason).
Related research
Keywords:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: