IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/anc/wmofir/177.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Information Asymmetry, External Certification, and the Cost of Bank Debt

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Bellucci

    (Universita' degli Studi dell'Insubria and MoFiR)

  • Alexander Borisov

    (Lindner College of Business, University of Cincinnati and MoFiR)

  • Germana Giombini

    (Department of Economics, Society and Politics, University of Urbino Carlo Bo and MoFiR)

  • Alberto Zazzaro

    (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Naples Federico II, CSEF, and MoFiR)

Abstract

This paper examines how the cost of bank debt reflects public information about borrower quality, and whether such information complements or substitutes the private information of banks. Using a sample of small business loans, and the award of a competitive public subsidy as an observable positive signal of external certification, we find that a certification is associated with a lower cost of debt for the recipients if the amount of private information of the lender is low. As the bank accumulates more information over the course of the lending relationship with a borrower, public information loses importance and no longer has a significant effect. Our results highlight a potential positive effect of external certification, and suggest that public and private information can be substitutes in the pricing of bank debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Bellucci & Alexander Borisov & Germana Giombini & Alberto Zazzaro, 2022. "Information Asymmetry, External Certification, and the Cost of Bank Debt," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 177, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:anc:wmofir:177
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://docs.dises.univpm.it/web/quaderni/pdfmofir/Mofir177.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2022
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cassar, Gavin & Ittner, Christopher D. & Cavalluzzo, Ken S., 2015. "Alternative information sources and information asymmetry reduction: Evidence from small business debt," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 242-263.
    2. Michael Minnis, 2011. "The Value of Financial Statement Verification in Debt Financing: Evidence from Private U.S. Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 457-506, May.
    3. Andrea Bellucci & Luca Pennacchio & Alberto Zazzaro, 2019. "Public R&D subsidies: collaborative versus individual place-based programs for SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 213-240, January.
    4. Sikochi, Anywhere, 2020. "Corporate legal structure and bank loan spread," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Hans Degryse & Steven Ongena, 2005. "Distance, Lending Relationships, and Competition," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 231-266, February.
    6. Cole, Rebel A., 1998. "The importance of relationships to the availability of credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 959-977, August.
    7. Moro, Andrea & Maresch, Daniela & Fink, Matthias & Ferrando, Annalisa & Piga, Claudio, 2020. "Spillover effects of government initiatives fostering entrepreneurship on the access to bank credit for entrepreneurial firms in Europe," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    8. Almus, Matthias & Czarnitzki, Dirk, 2003. "The Effects of Public R&D Subsidies on Firms' Innovation Activities: The Case of Eastern Germany," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 21(2), pages 226-236, April.
    9. Rebel A. Cole & John D. Wolken, 1995. "Financial services used by small businesses: evidence from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Jul, pages 629-667.
    10. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2013. "Do banks price discriminate spatially? Evidence from small business lending in local credit markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4183-4197.
    11. Neuhann, Daniel & Saidi, Farzad, 2018. "Do universal banks finance riskier but more productive firms?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 66-85.
    12. Berger, Allen N. & Miller, Nathan H. & Petersen, Mitchell A. & Rajan, Raghuram G. & Stein, Jeremy C., 2005. "Does function follow organizational form? Evidence from the lending practices of large and small banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 237-269, May.
    13. Islam, Mazhar & Fremeth, Adam & Marcus, Alfred, 2018. "Signaling by early stage startups: US government research grants and venture capital funding," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 35-51.
    14. Andreas Olden & Jarle Møen, 2022. "The triple difference estimator [Semiparametric difference-in-differences estimators]," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 25(3), pages 531-553.
    15. Elsas, Ralf & Krahnen, Jan Pieter, 1998. "Is relationship lending special? Evidence from credit-file data in Germany," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(10-11), pages 1283-1316, October.
    16. Sabrina T. Howell, 2017. "Financing Innovation: Evidence from R&D Grants," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(4), pages 1136-1164, April.
    17. Hasan, Iftekhar & Shen, Yi & Yuan, Xiaojing, 2021. "Local product market competition and bank loans," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    18. DiPrete, Thomas A. & Gangl, Markus, 2004. "Assessing bias in the estimation of causal effects: Rosenbaum bounds on matching estimators and instrumental variables estimation with imperfect instruments," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Labor Market Policy and Employment SP I 2004-101, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    19. Stefano Filomeni & Gregory F. Udell & Alberto Zazzaro, 2021. "Hardening soft information: does organizational distance matter?," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(9), pages 897-927, June.
    20. Diana Bonfim & Cláudia Custódio, 2021. "The sensitivity of SME’s investment and employment to the cost of debt financing," Working Papers w202115, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    21. Ottati, Gabi Dei, 1994. "Trust, Interlinking Transactions and Credit in the Industrial District," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 18(6), pages 529-546, December.
    22. Jeong†Bon Kim & Dan A. Simunic & Michael T. Stein & CHEONG H. YI, 2011. "Voluntary Audits and the Cost of Debt Capital for Privately Held Firms: Korean Evidence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 585-615, June.
    23. Leonardo Gambacorta & Paolo Emilio Mistrulli, 2014. "Bank Heterogeneity and Interest Rate Setting: What Lessons Have We Learned since Lehman Brothers?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(4), pages 753-778, June.
    24. Gabi Dei Ottati, 2018. "Marshallian Industrial Districts in Italy: the end of a model or adaptation to the global economy? [Banks’ localism and industrial districts]," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 42(2), pages 259-284.
    25. Giorgio Calcagnini & Rebel Cole & Germana Giombini & Gloria Grandicelli, 2018. "Hierarchy of bank loan approval and loan performance," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(3), pages 935-954, December.
    26. Degryse, Hans & Van Cayseele, Patrick, 2000. "Relationship Lending within a Bank-Based System: Evidence from European Small Business Data," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 90-109, January.
    27. Jose M. Liberti & Atif R. Mian, 2009. "Estimating the Effect of Hierarchies on Information Use," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(10), pages 4057-4090, October.
    28. Heidi Vander Bauwhede & Michiel De Meyere & Philippe Van Cauwenberge, 2015. "Financial reporting quality and the cost of debt of SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 149-164, June.
    29. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Giombini, Germana & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2019. "Collateralization and distance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 205-217.
    30. Derrien, François & Kecskés, Ambrus & Mansi, Sattar A., 2016. "Information asymmetry, the cost of debt, and credit events: Evidence from quasi-random analyst disappearances," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 295-311.
    31. Sascha O. Becker & Marco Caliendo, 2007. "Sensitivity analysis for average treatment effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 7(1), pages 71-83, February.
    32. Feldman, Maryann P. & Kelley, Maryellen R., 2006. "The ex ante assessment of knowledge spillovers: Government R&D policy, economic incentives and private firm behavior," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1509-1521, December.
    33. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    34. 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.
    35. Meuleman, Miguel & De Maeseneire, Wouter, 2012. "Do R&D subsidies affect SMEs’ access to external financing?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 580-591.
    36. Boot, Arnoud W. A., 2000. "Relationship Banking: What Do We Know?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 7-25, January.
    37. Söderblom, Anna & Samuelsson, Mikael & Wiklund, Johan & Sandberg, Rickard, 2015. "Inside the black box of outcome additionality: Effects of early-stage government subsidies on resource accumulation and new venture performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(8), pages 1501-1512.
    38. Holger Görg & Eric Strobl, 2007. "The Effect of R&D Subsidies on Private R&D," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(294), pages 215-234, May.
    39. 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.
    40. Alessandro Gambini & Alberto Zazzaro, 2013. "Long-lasting bank relationships and growth of firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 977-1007, May.
    41. Lerner, Josh, 1999. "The Government as Venture Capitalist: The Long-Run Impact of the SBIR Program," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(3), pages 285-318, July.
    42. Hollander, Stephan & Verriest, Arnt, 2016. "Bridging the gap: the design of bank loan contracts and distance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 399-419.
    43. Ni, Xiaoran & Yin, Sirui, 2018. "Shareholder litigation rights and the cost of debt: Evidence from derivative lawsuits," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 169-186.
    44. Li Li & Jean Chen & Hongli Gao & Li Xie, 2019. "The certification effect of government R&D subsidies on innovative entrepreneurial firms’ access to bank finance: evidence from China," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 241-259, January.
    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. Zhang, Kaixia & Bu, Caiqi, 2024. "Top managers with information technology backgrounds and digital transformation: Evidence from small and medium companies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Licheng Yang & Shijie Song & Chunlin Liu, 2024. "Green signals: The impact of environmental protection support policies on firms' green innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3258-3278, May.
    3. Bellucci, Andrea & Pennacchio, Luca & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2023. "Debt financing of SMEs: The certification role of R&D Subsidies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Wang, Yidi & Gu, Hongmei, 2024. "Impacts of trust on the cost of debt financing: The perspectives of in-group trust and out-group trust," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    5. Fan, Wei & Ying, Qianwei & Meng, Guo, 2023. "The signaling effect of policy loans: Do commercial banks follow up or stand by?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    6. Giorgio Calcagnini & Germana Giombini & Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera, 2024. "Bank Lending Policies and Green Transition," Working Papers - Economics wp2024_16.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.

    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. Bellucci, Andrea & Pennacchio, Luca & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2023. "Debt financing of SMEs: The certification role of R&D Subsidies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Uchida, Hirofumi & Udell, Gregory F. & Yamori, Nobuyoshi, 2012. "Loan officers and relationship lending to SMEs," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 97-122.
    3. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Giombini, Germana & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2019. "Collateralization and distance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 205-217.
    4. Simon Cornée, 2014. "Soft Information and Default Prediction in Cooperative and Social Banks," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 3(1), pages 89-103, June.
    5. Andrea Bellucci & Alexander Borisov & Germana Giombini & Alberto Zazzaro, 2015. "Collateral and Local Lending: Testing the Lender-Based Theory," IAW Discussion Papers 119, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    6. Santikian, Lori, 2014. "The ties that bind: Bank relationships and small business lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 177-213.
    7. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2010. "Does gender matter in bank-firm relationships? Evidence from small business lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2968-2984, December.
    8. López-Espinosa, Germán & Mayordomo, Sergio & Moreno, Antonio, 2017. "When does relationship lending start to pay?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 16-29.
    9. Salvatore Capasso & Stefano Monferrà & Gabriele Sampagnaro, 2015. "The Shadow Economy and Banks’ Lending Technology," CSEF Working Papers 422, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    10. Tlili, Rim, 2012. "Comment justifier la multibancarité au sein des PME ?," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/10919 edited by Etner, François.
    11. Keil, Jan, 2023. "Lending relationships when creditors are in control," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Hussain, Inayat & Durand, Robert B. & Harris, Mark N., 2021. "Relationship lending: A source of support or a means of exploitation?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    13. Simon Cornée & David Masclet & Gervais Thenet, 2012. "Credit Relationships: Evidence from Experiments with Real Bankers," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(5), pages 957-980, August.
    14. Berger, Marius & Hottenrott, Hanna, 2021. "Start-up subsidies and the sources of venture capital," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    15. Hans Degryse & Steven Ongena, 2005. "Distance, Lending Relationships, and Competition," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 231-266, February.
    16. Martin Brown & Matthias Schaller & Simone Westerfeld & Markus Heusler, 2012. "Information or Insurance? On the Role of Loan Officer Discretion in Credit Assessment," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 67, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    17. Loukil Sahar & Jarboui Anis, 2016. "Loan officers and soft information production," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1199521-119, December.
    18. Irma Malafronte & Stefano Monferrà & Claudio Porzio & Gabriele Sampagnaro, 2014. "Competition, specialization and bank--firm interaction: what happens in credit crunch periods?," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(8), pages 557-571, April.
    19. Ferri, Giovanni & Murro, Pierluigi, 2015. "Do firm–bank ‘odd couples’ exacerbate credit rationing?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 231-251.
    20. Hirsch, Bernhard & Nitzl, Christian & Schoen, Matthias, 2018. "Interorganizational trust and agency costs in credit relationships between savings banks and SMEs," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 37-50.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information; Financial Contracting; Interest rate; SMEs Financing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:anc:wmofir:177. 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: Maurizio Mariotti (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mfancit.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.