Information and Export Decisions: Bank’s Role as a Conduit of Information (in Japanese)

This paper examines how firms’ decision to start exporting is affected by the availability of information on export markets. Unlike existing studies which focus on information sharing among firms, we are interested in the information provided by firms’ top lender bank (main bank). Specifically, using a unique dataset containing information on both Japanese firms’ export activities and their main banks’ experience in transacting with other exporting firms, we examine whether main banks act as a conduit of information on export markets. We find that information spillovers through main banks positively affect client firms’ decision to start exporting (extensive margin), implying that information on foreign markets provided by main banks substantially reduces the fixed entry cost of exporting and helps non-exporting client firms to become exporters. Moreover, our results imply that information spillovers through main banks are more important for firms which choose Asia as their export destination. As such firms are more likely to be smaller firms, our results may suggest that main banks play an important role as a conduit of information particularly for smaller firms. Thus, our results highlight that channels of information spillovers other than those examined in the literature so far may be of considerable importance.