This paper investigates how a firm's borrowing cost evolves as it ages. Using a new data set of more than 200,000 bank-dependent small firms in 1997-2002, we find the following. First, the distribution of borrowing cost tends to become less skewed to the right over time. Second, this shift of the distribution can be partially attributable to "selection" (i.e., firms with lower quality and higher borrowing costs exit from markets), but mainly explained by "adaptation" (i.e., surviving firms' borrowing costs decline as they age). Third, we find an age dependence of a firm's borrowing costs even if we control for firm size, but fails to find an age dependence of its profits volatility once we control for firm size. Empirical results suggest that age dependence of borrowing costs comes not from the Diamond's reputation-acquisition mechanism, but from bank's learning about borrower's true quality over the duration of bank-borrower relationship.
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Paper provided by Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) in its series Discussion papers with number
05026.
Length: 36 pages Date of creation: Nov 2005 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:05026
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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.:
Charles Brown & James L. Medoff, 2003.
"Firm Age and Wages,"
Journal of Labor Economics,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(3), pages 677-698, July.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Charles Brown & James L. Medoff, 2001.
"Firm Age and Wages,"
NBER Working Papers
8552, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Thomas F. Cooley & Vincenzo Quadrini, 1999.
"Financial Markets and Firm Dynamics,"
Working Papers
99-14, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
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