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Competition, Risk Neutrality and Loan Commitments

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Author Info
Arnoud Boot (Katholieke Universiteit Brabant)
Anjan V. Thakor (Washington University in St. Louis)
Gregory F. Udell (New York University)

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Abstract

We rationalize fixed rate loan commitments (forward credit contracting with options) in a competitive credit market with universal risk neutraility. Future interest rates are random, but there are no transactions costs. Borrowers finance projects with bank loans and choose ex post unobseravable actions that affect project payoffs. Credit contract design by the bank is the outcome of a (non-cooperative) Nash game between the bank and the borrower. The initial formal analysis is basically in two steps. First, we show that the only spot credit market Nash equilibria that exist are inefficient in the sense that they result in welfare losses for borrowers due to the bank's informational handicap. Second, we show that loan commitments, because of their ability to weaken the link between the offering bank's expected profit and the loan interest rate, enable to the complete elimination of informationally induced welfare losses and thus produce an outcome that strictly Pareto dominates any spot market equilibrium. Perhaps our most surprising result is that, if the borrower has some initial liquidity, it is better for the borrower to use it now to pay a commitment fee and buy a loan commitment that entitles it to borrow in the future rather than save it for use as an inside equity in conjunction with spot borrowing.

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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Finance with number 0411051.

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Length: 23 pages
Date of creation: 30 Nov 2004
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Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0411051

Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 23
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G - Financial Economics

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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.:
  1. Wilson, Charles, 1977. "A model of insurance markets with incomplete information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 167-207, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Millon, Marcia H & Thakor, Anjan V, 1985. " Moral Hazard and Information Sharing: A Model of Financial Information Gathering Agencies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(5), pages 1403-22, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Robert Townsend, 1979. "Optimal contracts and competitive markets with costly state verification," Staff Report 45, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. James, Christopher, 1981. "Self-Selection and the Pricing of Bank Services: an Analysis of the Market for Loan Commitments and the Role of Compensating Balance Requirements," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(05), pages 725-746, December. [Downloadable!]
  5. Gale, Douglas & Hellwig, Martin, 1985. "Incentive-Compatible Debt Contracts: The One-Period Problem," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(4), pages 647-63, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Diamond, Douglas W, 1984. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(3), pages 393-414, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Melnik, Arie & Plaut, Steven E., 1986. "The economics of loan commitment contracts: Credit pricing and utilization," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 267-280, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. 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)
  9. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1979. "Optimal incentive contracts with imperfect information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 231-259, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Ramakrishnan, Ram T S & Thakor, Anjan V, 1984. "Information Reliability and a Theory of Financial Intermediation," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(3), pages 415-32, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Chan, Yuk-Shee & Thakor, Anjan V, 1987. " Collateral and Competitive Equilibria with Moral Hazard and Private Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 345-63, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Jaffee, Dwight M & Russell, Thomas, 1976. "Imperfect Information, Uncertainty, and Credit Rationing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 90(4), pages 651-66, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Thakor, Anjan V. & Udell, Gregory F., 1987. "An economic rationale for the pricing structure of bank loan commitments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 271-289, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Campbell, Tim S, 1978. "A Model of the Market for Lines of Credit," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(1), pages 231-44, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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. Egli, D. & Ongena, S. & Smith, D.C., 2001. "On the sequencing of projects, reputation building, and relationship finance," Discussion Paper 1, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Sumit Agarwal & Souphala Chomsisengphet & John C. Driscoll, 2004. "Loan commitments and private firms," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-27, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  3. Ozgur Emre Ergungor, 2000. "Relationship loans and information exploitability in a competitive market: loan commitments vs. spot loans," Working Paper 0013, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
  4. George Sofianos & Arie Melnik & Paul Wachtel, 1991. "Loan Commitments and Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 2232, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Allen N. Berger & Marco A. Espinosa-Vega & W. Scott Frame & Nathan H. Miller, 2004. "Debt maturity, risk, and asymmetric information," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-60, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Evan Gatev & Philip E. Strahan, 2003. "Banks' Advantage in Hedging Liquidity Risk: Theory and Evidence from the Commercial Paper Market," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 03-01, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
  7. Evan Gatev & Philip E. Strahan, 2003. "Banks' Advantage in Hedging Liquidity Risk: Theory and Evidence from the Commercial Paper Market," NBER Working Papers 9956, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Robert B. Avery & Allen N. Berger, 1990. "Loan commitments and bank risk exposure," Working Paper 9015, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Sangkyun Park, 1997. "Option value of credit lines as an explanation of high credit card rates," Research Paper 9702, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
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