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When do creditor rights work?

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Author Info
Safavian, Mehnaz
Sharma, Siddharth
Abstract

Creditor-friendly laws are generally associated with more credit to the private sector and deeper financial markets. But laws mean little if they are not upheld in the courts. The authors hypothesize that the effectiveness of creditor rights is strongly linked to the efficiency of contract enforcement. This hypothesis is tested using firm level data on 27 European countries in 2002 and 2005. The analysis finds that firms have more access to bank credit in countries with better creditor rights, but the association between creditor rights and bank credit is much weaker in countries with inefficient courts. Exploiting the panel dimension of the data and the fact that creditor rights change over time, the authors show that the effect of a change in creditor rights on change in bank credit increases with court enforcement. In particular, a unit increase in the creditor rights index will increase the share of bank loans in firm investment by 27 percent in a country at the 10th percentile of the enforcement time distribution (Lithuania). However, the increase will be only 7 percent in a country at the 80th percentile of this distribution (Kyrgyzstan). Legal protections of creditors and efficient courts are strong complements.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 4296.

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Date of creation: 01 Aug 2007
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4296

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Keywords: Debt Markets Banks & Banking Reform Emerging Markets Labor Policies

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  1. Katharina Pistor & Martin Raiser & Stanislaw Gelfer, 2000. "Law and Finance in Transition Economies," CID Working Papers 49, Center for International Development at Harvard University. [Downloadable!]
  2. Jun Qian & Philip E. Strahan, 2005. "How Law and Institutions Shape Financial Contracts: The Case of Bank Loans," NBER Working Papers 11052, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Aghion, Philippe & Bolton, Patrick, 1992. "An Incomplete Contracts Approach to Financial Contracting," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 59(3), pages 473-94, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Simon Johnson & John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 2002. "Property Rights and Finance," NBER Working Papers 8852, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Magda Bianco & Tullio Jappelli & Marco Pagano, 2001. "Courts and Banks: Effects of Judicial Enforcement on Credit Markets," CSEF Working Papers 58, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Salerno, Italy. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Djankov, Simeon & McLiesh, Caralee & Shleifer, Andrei, 2007. "Private credit in 129 countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 299-329, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Laeven, Luc & Majnoni, Giovanni, 2005. "Does judicial efficiency lower the cost of credit?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1791-1812, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Katharina Pistor & Martin Raiser & Stanislaw Gelfer, 2000. "Law and Finance in Transition Economies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 8(2), pages 325-368, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Haselmann, Rainer & Pistor, Katharina & Vig, Vikrant, 2006. "How Law Affects Lending," MPRA Paper 157, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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