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Bank finance versus bond finance - what explains the differences between US and Europe?

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Author Info
Fiorella De Fiore () (Directorate General Research, European Central Bank, Postfach 160319, 60066 Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
Harald Uhlig () (School of Business and Economics,WiPol 1, Humboldt University, Spandauer Str. 1, 10178 Berlin, Germany)

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Abstract

We present a dynamic general equilibrium model with agency costs, where heterogeneous firms choose among two alternative instruments of external finance - corporate bonds and bank loans. We characterize the financing choice of firms and the endogenous financial structure of the economy. The calibrated model is used to address questions such as - What explains differences in the financial structure of the US and the euro area? What are the implications of these differences for allocations? We find that a higher share of bank finance in the euro area relative to the US is due to lower availability of public information about firms'credit worthiness and to higher efficiency of banks in acquiring this information. We also quantify the effect of differences in the financial structure on per-capita GDP.

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Paper provided by European Central Bank in its series Working Paper Series with number 547.

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Length: 52 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2005
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Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20050547

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Related research
Keywords: Financial structure agency costs heterogeneity.

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods and Programming - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models

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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.:
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    Other versions:
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    Other versions:
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, 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.)

  1. Luis J. Álvarez & Emmanuel Dhyne & Marco M. Hoeberichts & Claudia Kwapil & Hervé Le Bihan & Patrick Lünnemann & Roberto Sabbatini & Fernando Martins & Harald Stahl & Philip Vermeulen & Jouko Vilmun, 2005. "Sticky prices in the euro area - a summary of new micro evidence," Working Paper Series 563, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Benjamin Bental & Dominique Demougin, 2005. "Do Factor Shares Reflect Technology?," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-050, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  3. Anja Schöttner, 2005. "Relational Contracts and Job Design," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-052, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  4. Yasemin Boztug & Lutz Hildebrandt, 2005. "An empirical test of theories of price valuation using a semiparametric approach, reference prices, and accounting for heterogeneity," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-057, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  5. Markus Krätzig, 2005. "A Software Framework for Data Based Analysis," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-044, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  6. Denise Côté & Christopher Graham, 2007. "Corporate Balance Sheets in Developed Economies: Implications for Investment," Working Papers 07-24, Bank of Canada. [Downloadable!]
  7. Christian Weiner, 2005. "The Impact of Industry Classification Schemes on Financial Research," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-062, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  8. António Afonso, 2005. "Ricardian fiscal regimes in the European Union," Working Paper Series 558, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Wolfgang Härdle & Sigbert Klinke & Uwe Ziegenhagen, 2005. "Integrable e-lements for Statistics Education," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-058, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  10. Imen Bentahar & Bruno Bouchard, 2005. "Explicit characterization of the super-replication strategy in financial markets with partial transaction costs," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-053, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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