IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bofitp/bdp2014_004.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does money buy credit? Firm-level evidence on bribery and bank debt

Author

Listed:
  • Fungáčová, Zuzana
  • Weill, Laurent
  • Kochanova, Anna

Abstract

This study examines how bribery influences bank debt ratios for a large sample of firms from 14 transition countries. We combine information on bribery practices from the BEEPS survey with firm-level accounting data from the Amadeus database. Bribery is measured by the frequency of extra unofficial payments to officials to "get things done". We find that bribery is positively related to firms' bank debt ratios, which provides evidence that bribing bank officials facilitates firms' access to bank loans. This impact differs with the maturity of bank debt, as bribery contributes to higher short-term bank debt ratios but lower long-term bank debt ratios. Finally, we find that the institutional characteristics of the banking industry influence the relation between bribery and firms' bank debt ratios. Higher levels of financial development constrain the positive effects of bribery whereas larger market shares of state-owned banks have the opposite effect. Foreign bank presence also affects the impact of bribery, albeit this effect depends on the maturity of firms' bank-debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Fungáčová, Zuzana & Weill, Laurent & Kochanova, Anna, 2014. "Does money buy credit? Firm-level evidence on bribery and bank debt," BOFIT Discussion Papers 4/2014, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofitp:bdp2014_004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/212790/1/bofit-dp2014-004.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weill, Laurent, 2011. "How corruption affects bank lending in Russia," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 230-243, June.
    2. Djankov, Simeon & McLiesh, Caralee & Shleifer, Andrei, 2007. "Private credit in 129 countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 299-329, May.
    3. Jakob Svensson, 2003. "Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much? Evidence from a Cross Section of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 207-230.
    4. Martin Brown & Steven Ongena & Alexander Popov & Pinar Yeşin, 2011. "Who needs credit and who gets credit in Eastern Europe? [Interaction terms in logit and probit models]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 26(65), pages 93-130.
    5. De Rosa Donato & Gooroochurn Nishaal & Görg Holger, 2015. "Corruption and Productivity: Firm-level Evidence," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 235(2), pages 115-138, April.
    6. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1998. "Financial Dependence and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 559-586, June.
    7. Klapper, Leora & Laeven, Luc & Rajan, Raghuram, 2006. "Entry regulation as a barrier to entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 591-629, December.
    8. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "Government Ownership of Banks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 265-301, February.
    9. Bena, Jan & Ondko, Peter, 2012. "Financial development and the allocation of external finance," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 1-25.
    10. La Porta, Rafael & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1131-1150, July.
    11. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2006. "Bank supervision and corruption in lending," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(8), pages 2131-2163, November.
    12. Javorcik, Beata S. & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2009. "Corruption and cross-border investment in emerging markets: Firm-level evidence," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 605-624, June.
    13. de Jong, Abe & Kabir, Rezaul & Nguyen, Thuy Thu, 2008. "Capital structure around the world: The roles of firm- and country-specific determinants," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1954-1969, September.
    14. Fan,Yuting & Nguyen,Ha Minh & Qian,Rong & Nguyen,Ha Minh & Qian,Rong, 2012. "Collateralized Borrowing : Insights from The World Bank Enterprise Surveys," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6001, The World Bank.
    15. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Weill, Laurent, 2010. "Is Corruption an Efficient Grease?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 244-259, March.
    16. Li, Kai & Yue, Heng & Zhao, Longkai, 2009. "Ownership, institutions, and capital structure: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 471-490, September.
    17. Giannetti, Mariassunta, 2003. "Do Better Institutions Mitigate Agency Problems? Evidence from Corporate Finance Choices," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 185-212, March.
    18. Ross Levine & Norman Loayza & Thorsten Beck, 2002. "Financial Intermediation and Growth: Causality and Causes," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Leonardo Hernández & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Se (ed.),Banking, Financial Integration, and International Crises, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 031-084, Central Bank of Chile.
    19. Rajeev Goel & Iftekhar Hasan, 2011. "Economy-wide corruption and bad loans in banking: international evidence," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 455-461.
    20. Jõeveer, Karin, 2013. "Firm, country and macroeconomic determinants of capital structure: Evidence from transition economies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 294-308.
    21. De Rosa, Donato & Gooroochurn, Nishaal & Görg, Holger, 2010. "Corruption and productivity firm-level evidence from the BEEPS survey," Kiel Working Papers 1632, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    22. Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "Local Corruption and Global Capital Flows," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 31(2), pages 303-354.
    23. Clarke, George R.G. & Cull, Robert & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2006. "Foreign bank participation and access to credit across firms in developing countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 774-795, December.
    24. Degryse, Hans & Havrylchyk, Olena & Jurzyk, Emilia & Kozak, Sylwester, 2012. "Foreign bank entry, credit allocation and lending rates in emerging markets: Empirical evidence from Poland," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2949-2959.
    25. Chen, Yunling & Liu, Ming & Su, Jun, 2013. "Greasing the wheels of bank lending: Evidence from private firms in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2533-2545.
    26. Anna Kochanova, 2012. "The Impact of Bribery on Firm Performance: Evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp473, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    27. Ralph de Haas & Marga Peeters, 2006. "The dynamic adjustment towards target capital structures of firms in transition economies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 14(1), pages 133-169, March.
    28. Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Atif Mian, 2005. "Do Lenders Favor Politically Connected Firms? Rent Provision in an Emerging Financial Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(4), pages 1371-1411.
    29. Anos-Casero, Paloma & Udomsaph, Charles, 2009. "What drives firm productivity growth ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4841, The World Bank.
    30. Laurent Weill, 2011. "Does corruption hamper bank lending? Macro and micro evidence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 25-42, August.
    31. Kee‐Hong Bae & Vidhan K. Goyal, 2009. "Creditor Rights, Enforcement, and Bank Loans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 823-860, April.
    32. Safavian, Mehnaz S. & Sheldon, Ian M. & Graham, Douglas H. & Gonzalez-Vega, Claudio, 2001. "The Differential Impact Of Corruption On Microenterprises In Russia," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20495, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    33. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    34. Beck, Thorsten & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2010. "Foreign bank participation and outreach: Evidence from Mexico," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 52-73, January.
    35. de Haas, Ralph & van Lelyveld, Iman, 2006. "Foreign banks and credit stability in Central and Eastern Europe. A panel data analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1927-1952, July.
    36. Fan, Joseph P. H. & Titman, Sheridan & Twite, Garry, 2012. "An International Comparison of Capital Structure and Debt Maturity Choices," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(1), pages 23-56, February.
    37. Martin Brown & Ralph De Haas, 2012. "Foreign banks and foreign currency lending in emerging Europe [Capital structure and financial risk: evidence from foreign debt use in East Asia]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 27(69), pages 57-98.
    38. Fisman, Raymond & Svensson, Jakob, 2007. "Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 63-75, May.
    39. Safavian, Mehnaz S. & Graham, Douglas H. & Gonzalez-Vega, Claudio, 2001. "Corruption and Microenterprises in Russia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1215-1224, July.
    40. Houston, Joel F. & Lin, Chen & Ma, Yue, 2011. "Media ownership, concentration and corruption in bank lending," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 326-350, May.
    41. Simon Commander & Jan Svejnar, 2011. "Business Environment, Exports, Ownership, and Firm Performance," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 309-337, February.
    42. Duvanova, Dinissa, 2014. "Economic Regulations, Red Tape, and Bureaucratic Corruption in Post-Communist Economies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 298-312.
    43. Paolo Mauro, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712.
    44. Barth, James R. & Lin, Chen & Lin, Ping & Song, Frank M., 2009. "Corruption in bank lending to firms: Cross-country micro evidence on the beneficial role of competition and information sharing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 361-388, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fungáčová, Zuzana & Kochanova, Anna & Weill, Laurent, 2015. "Does Money Buy Credit? Firm-Level Evidence on Bribery and Bank Debt," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 308-322.
    2. repec:zbw:bofitp:2014_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Nirosha Hewa Wellalage & Stuart Locke & Helen Samujh, 2020. "Firm bribery and credit access: evidence from Indian SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 283-304, June.
    4. Shusen Qi & Steven Ongena, 2019. "Will Money Talk? Firm Bribery and Credit Access," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 117-157, March.
    5. Haider, Zulfiquer Ali & Liu, Mingzhi & Wang, Yefeng & Zhang, Ying, 2018. "Government ownership, financial constraint, corruption, and corporate performance: International evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 76-93.
    6. Ahlin, Christian & Pang, Jiaren, 2008. "Are financial development and corruption control substitutes in promoting growth?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 414-433, June.
    7. Ben Ali, Mohamed Sami & Fhima, Fredj & Nouira, Ridha, 2020. "How does corruption undermine banking stability? A threshold nonlinear framework," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    8. Nirosha Hewa Wellalage & Stuart Locke & Helen Samujh, 2019. "Corruption, Gender and Credit Constraints: Evidence from South Asian SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 267-280, September.
    9. Hanousek, Jan & Kochanova, Anna, 2015. "Bribery Environment and Firm Performance: Evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries," CEPR Discussion Papers 10499, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Janbaz, Mehdi & Hassan, M. Kabir & Floreani, Josanco & Dreassi, Alberto & Jiménez, Alfredo, 2022. "Political risk in banks: A review and agenda," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Akins, Brian & Dou, Yiwei & Ng, Jeffrey, 2017. "Corruption in bank lending: The role of timely loan loss recognition," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 454-478.
    12. Hanousek, Jan & Kochanova, Anna, 2016. "Bribery environments and firm performance: Evidence from CEE countries," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 14-28.
    13. Li, Guangzi & Chan, Kam C., 2021. "Anti-corruption intensity and loan contracting: Evidence from non-state owned firms in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    14. Abdelaziz Hakimi & Rim Boussaada & Majdi Karmani, 2022. "Is the relationship between corruption, government stability and non‐performing loans non‐linear? A threshold analysis for the MENA region," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 4383-4398, October.
    15. Ferris, Stephen P. & Hanousek, Jan & Tresl, Jiri, 2021. "Corporate profitability and the global persistence of corruption," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    16. repec:zbw:bofitp:2008_018 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Laurent Weill, 2011. "Does corruption hamper bank lending? Macro and micro evidence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 25-42, August.
    18. Asteriou, Dimitrios & Pilbeam, Keith & Tomuleasa, Iuliana, 2021. "The impact of corruption, economic freedom, regulation and transparency on bank profitability and bank stability: Evidence from the Eurozone area," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 150-177.
    19. Anna Kochanova, 2012. "The Impact of Bribery on Firm Performance: Evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp473, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    20. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    21. Le Thanh Ha & Dao Hanh Le & Nguyen Ngoc Mai, 2021. "Bribes, market power and access to credit: evidence from cross-country firm-level data," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 68(4), pages 527-550, December.
    22. Liu, Baohua & Lin, Yan & Chan, Kam C. & Fung, Hung-Gay, 2018. "The dark side of rent-seeking: The impact of rent-seeking on earnings management," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 94-107.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    bank lending; bribery; corruption; Eastern Europe;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior
    • P2 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:bofitp:bdp2014_004. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bofitfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.