IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/exehis/v45y2008i4p477-488.html

Paying back to borrow more: Reputation and bank credit access in early America

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Ta-Chen

Abstract

The birth of commercial banking in New England after the American Revolution provides an important case to examine banking development under asymmetric information. Similar to credit markets in developing countries today, bank borrowers of early America usually had little or no collateral. This paper uses a unique data set based on loans between 1803 and 1833 for Plymouth Bank to examine bank lending policies in the absence of collateral. Empirical evidence suggests that borrowers with little collateral established their credit-worthiness through repeated interaction with banks.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Ta-Chen, 2008. "Paying back to borrow more: Reputation and bank credit access in early America," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 477-488, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:45:y:2008:i:4:p:477-488
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014-4983(08)00024-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Diamond, Douglas W, 1989. "Reputation Acquisition in Debt Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 828-862, August.
    2. W. Bentley MacLeod, 2007. "Reputations, Relationships, and Contract Enforcement," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 595-628, September.
    3. Bodenhorn, Howard, 2003. "Short-Term Loans and Long-Term Relationships: Relationship Lending in Early America," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(4), pages 485-505, August.
    4. Wright,Robert E., 2002. "The Wealth of Nations Rediscovered," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521812375, Enero-Abr.
    5. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1995. "Relationship Lending and Lines of Credit in Small Firm Finance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(3), pages 351-381, July.
    6. 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.
    7. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 1995. "The Effect of Credit Market Competition on Lending Relationships," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 407-443.
    8. Beatriz Armendáriz de Aghion & Jonathan Morduch, 2000. "Microfinance Beyond Group Lending," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 8(2), pages 401-420, July.
    9. Bodenhorn, Howard, 2007. "Usury ceilings and bank lending behavior: Evidence from nineteenth century New York," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 179-202, April.
    10. Davis, Lance E., 1960. "The New England Textile Mills and the Capital Markets: A Study of Industrial Borrowing 1840–1860," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-30, March.
    11. Boot, Arnoud W A & Thakor, Anjan V, 1994. "Moral Hazard and Secured Lending in an Infinitely Repeated Credit Market Game," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 35(4), pages 899-920, November.
    12. Eugene White, 1999. "California Banking in the Nineteenth Century: The Art and Method of the Bank of A. Levy," Departmental Working Papers 199905, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    13. Jonathan Morduch, 1999. "The Microfinance Promise," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1569-1614, December.
    14. Rothenberg, Winifred B., 1979. "A Price Index for Rural Massachusetts, 1750–1855," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 975-1001, December.
    15. Naomi R. Lamoreaux, 1994. "Insider Lending: Banks, Personal Connections, and Economic Development in Industrial New England," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number lamo94-1, January.
    16. Adams, Donald R., 1972. "The Bank of Stephen Girard, 1812–1831," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(4), pages 841-868, December.
    17. White, Eugene N., 2001. "California Banking in the Nineteenth Century: The Art and Method of the Bank of A. Levy," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 297-324, July.
    18. Bodenhorn, Howard, 1997. "Private Banking in Antebellum Virginia: Thomas Branch & Sons of Petersburg," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(4), pages 513-542, January.
    19. Besley, Timothy, 1995. "Savings, credit and insurance," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 36, pages 2123-2207, Elsevier.
    20. Martinelli, Cesar, 1997. "Small firms, borrowing constraints, and reputation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 91-105, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Howard Bodenhorn, 2016. "Two Centuries of Finance and Growth in the United States, 1790-1980," Working Papers id:11352, eSocialSciences.

    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. Kirschenmann, K., 2010. "The Dynamics in Requested and Granted Loan Terms when Bank and Borrower Interact Repeatedly," Other publications TiSEM 300df022-4701-4773-a8b7-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Kirschenmann, Karolin, 2010. "The dynamics in requested and granted loan terms when bank and borrower interact repeatedly," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Hannover 2010 7, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    3. Kirschenmann, K., 2010. "The Dynamics in Requested and Granted Loan Terms when Bank and Borrower Interact Repeatedly," Other publications TiSEM 40d5005c-1626-4511-aa8a-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Behr, Patrick & Entzian, Annekathrin & Güttler, Andre, 2011. "How do lending relationships affect access to credit and loan conditions in microlending?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 2169-2178, August.
    5. Tensie Steijvers & Wim Voordeckers & Koen Vanhoof, 2010. "Collateral, relationship lending and family firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 243-259, April.
    6. Howard Bodenhorn, 2016. "Two Centuries of Finance and Growth in the United States, 1790-1980," Working Papers id:11352, eSocialSciences.
    7. Behr, Patrick & Sonnekalb, Simon, 2012. "The effect of information sharing between lenders on access to credit, cost of credit, and loan performance – Evidence from a credit registry introduction," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 3017-3032.
    8. Manoj Athavale & Robert O. Edmister, 2004. "The Pricing of Sequential Bank Loans," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 39(2), pages 231-253, May.
    9. Song Zhang & Liang Han & Konstantinos Kallias & Antonios Kallias, 2022. "Bank switching of US small businesses: new methods and evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1573-1616, May.
    10. Reabetswe Kgoroeadira & Andrew Burke & André Stel, 2019. "Small business online loan crowdfunding: who gets funded and what determines the rate of interest?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 67-87, January.
    11. Manoj Athavale & Robert O. Edmister, 1999. "Borrowing Relationships, Monitoring, And The Influence On Loan Rates," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 22(3), pages 341-352, September.
    12. Karlyn Mitchell & Douglas K. Pearce, 2004. "Which Loans are Relationship Loans? Evidence from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 9(2), pages 1-36, Summer.
    13. Janvier D. Nkurunziza, 2005. "Reputation and Credit without Collateral in Africa`s Formal Banking," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2005-02, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    14. Lionel Artige & Rosella Nicolini, 2008. "Memory in Contracts: The experience of the EBRD (1991-2003)," CREPP Working Papers 0803, Centre de Recherche en Economie Publique et de la Population (CREPP) (Research Center on Public and Population Economics) HEC-Management School, University of Liège.
    15. Sakai, Koji & Uesugi, Iichiro & Watanabe, Tsutomu, 2010. "Firm age and the evolution of borrowing costs: Evidence from Japanese small firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1970-1981, August.
    16. Tensie Steijvers & Wim Voordeckers, 2009. "Collateral And Credit Rationing: A Review Of Recent Empirical Studies As A Guide For Future Research," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(5), pages 924-946, December.
    17. Yaldız Hanedar, Elmas & Broccardo, Eleonora & Bazzana, Flavio, 2014. "Collateral requirements of SMEs: The evidence from less-developed countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 106-121.
    18. Allen N. Berger & Gregory F. Udell, 2002. "Small Business Credit Availability and Relationship Lending: The Importance of Bank Organisational Structure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages 32-53, February.
    19. Angelini, P. & Di Salvo, R. & Ferri, G., 1998. "Availability and cost of credit for small businesses: Customer relationships and credit cooperatives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 925-954, August.
    20. Ozgur Emre Ergungor, 2010. "Bank Branch Presence and Access to Credit in Low‐ to Moderate‐Income Neighborhoods," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(7), pages 1321-1349, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    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:eee:exehis:v:45:y:2008:i:4:p:477-488. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622830 .

    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.