IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/rfinst/v10y1997i3p661-91.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade Credit: Theories and Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Petersen, Mitchell A
  • Rajan, Raghuram G

Abstract

Firms may be financed by their suppliers rather than by financial institutions. There are many theories of trade credit, but few comprehensive empirical tests. This article attempts to fill the gap. We focus on small firms whose access to capital markets may be limited and find evidence suggesting that firms use more trade credit when credit from financial institutions is unavailable. Suppliers lend to constrained firms because they have a comparative advantage in getting information about buyers, they can liquidate assets more efficiently, and they have an implicit equity stake in the firms. Finally, firms with better access to credit offer more trade credit. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1997. "Trade Credit: Theories and Evidence," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(3), pages 661-691.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:10:y:1997:i:3:p:661-91
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1992. "Liquidation Values and Debt Capacity: A Market Equilibrium Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1343-1366, September.
    2. Smith, Janet Kiholm, 1987. "Trade Credit and Informational Asymmetry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 863-872, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Calomiris, Charles W. & Himmelberg, Charles P. & Wachtel, Paul, 1995. "Commercial paper, corporate finance, and the business cycle: a microeconomic perspective," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 203-250, June.
    5. Schwartz, Robert A., 1974. "An Economic Model of Trade Credit," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 643-657, September.
    6. Mian, Shehzad L & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1992. "Accounts Receivable Management Policy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(1), pages 169-200, March.
    7. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    8. repec:bla:jfinan:v:43:y:1988:i:5:p:1127-41 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Douglas W. Diamond, 1984. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 393-414.
    10. Wilbur G. Lewellen & John J. McConnell & Jonathan A. Scott, 1980. "Capital Market Influences On Trade Credit Policies," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 3(2), pages 105-113, June.
    11. Rogers, F. Halsey, 1994. "“Man to Loan $1500 and Serve as Clerk”: Trading Jobs for Loans in Mid-Nineteenth-Century San Francisco," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(1), pages 34-63, March.
    12. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1994. "A Theory of Debt Based on the Inalienability of Human Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(4), pages 841-879.
    13. Douglas W. Diamond, 1991. "Debt Maturity Structure and Liquidity Risk," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(3), pages 709-737.
    14. Emery, Gary W., 1987. "An Optimal Financial Response to Variable Demand," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 209-225, June.
    15. J. Stephen Ferris, 1981. "A Transactions Theory of Trade Credit Use," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 96(2), pages 243-270.
    16. Myers, Stewart C., 1984. "Capital structure puzzle," Working papers 1548-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    17. repec:cep:stitep:/1991/233 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Myers, Stewart C, 1984. "The Capital Structure Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 575-592, July.
    19. Stewart C. Myers, 1984. "Capital Structure Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 1393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Slovin, Myron B & Sushka, Marie E & Polonchek, John A, 1993. "The Value of Bank Durability: Borrowers as Bank Stakeholders," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 247-266, March.
    21. Emery, Gary W., 1984. "A Pure Financial Explanation for Trade Credit," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 271-285, September.
    22. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, 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. Ala’a Adden Abuhommous & Tareq Mashoka, 2018. "A dynamic approach to accounts receivable: the case of Jordanian firms," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(2), pages 171-191, June.
    2. N. Berger, Allen & F. Udell, Gregory, 1998. "The economics of small business finance: The roles of private equity and debt markets in the financial growth cycle," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 613-673, August.
    3. Yoshiro Miwa & J. Mark Ramseyer, 2005. "Trade Credit, Bank Loans, and Monitoring: Evidence from Japan," CARF F-Series CARF-F-054, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    4. Paul, Salima & Boden, Rebecca, 2008. "The secret life of UK trade credit supply: Setting a new research agenda," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 272-281.
    5. Vo, Hong & Phan, Anh & Trinh, Quoc-Dat & Vu, Linh Nhat, 2022. "Does economic policy uncertainty affect trade credit and firm value in Korea? A comparison of chaebol vs. non-chaebol firms," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 474-491.
    6. Pedro J. García†Teruel & Pedro Martínez†Solano, 2010. "A Dynamic Approach to Accounts Receivable: a Study of Spanish SMEs," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(3), pages 400-421, June.
    7. Mariarosaria Agostino & Francesco Trivieri, 2014. "Does trade credit play a signalling role? Some evidence from SMEs microdata," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 131-151, January.
    8. Ydriss Ziane, 2009. "Tests des motifs transactionnels et financiers du crédit commercial:le cas des firmes lorraines," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 12(1), pages 67-92, March.
    9. Andriakopoulos, Konstantinos & Kounetas, Konstantinos, 2019. "The impact of large lending on bank efficiency in U.S.A," MPRA Paper 96036, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Cristina Martínez-Sola & Pedro J. García-Teruel & Pedro Martínez-Solano, 2013. "Trade credit policy and firm value," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(3), pages 791-808, September.
    11. Satish Kumar & Riya Sureka & Sisira Colombage, 2020. "Capital structure of SMEs: a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(4), pages 535-565, November.
    12. Cristina Martínez-Sola & Pedro García-Teruel & Pedro Martínez-Solano, 2014. "Trade credit and SME profitability," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 561-577, March.
    13. Nisar Ahmad & Talat Afza & Bilal Nafees, 2017. "Determinants of Trade Credit Extended by Manufacturing Firms Listed in Pakistan," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 9(4), pages 287-314, December.
    14. Rodríguez Rodríguez, O. Mª, 2005. "El crédito comercial en las pymes canarias desde una perspectiva multivariante," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 23, pages 773-816, Diciembre.
    15. Cristina Martínez Sola & Pedro J. García-Teruel & Pedro Martínez Solano, 2012. "Trade credit policy and firm value," Working Papers. Serie EC 2012-01, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    16. Tang, Tony T., 2009. "Information asymmetry and firms' credit market access: Evidence from Moody's credit rating format refinement," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 325-351, August.
    17. Graham, John R. & Leary, Mark T. & Roberts, Michael R., 2015. "A century of capital structure: The leveraging of corporate America," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 658-683.
    18. Cunningham, Rose, 2005. "Trade Credit and Credit Rationing in Canadian Firms," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2005036e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    19. Jiao Wang & Lima Zhao & Arnd Huchzermeier, 2021. "Operations‐Finance Interface in Risk Management: Research Evolution and Opportunities," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(2), pages 355-389, February.
    20. W. Allard Bruinshoofd & Clemens J. M. Kool, 2004. "Dutch Corporate Liquidity Management: New Evidence on Aggregation," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 195-230, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

    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:oup:rfinst:v:10:y:1997:i:3:p:661-91. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfsssea.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.