IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bdi/wptemi/td_1099_17.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Informal loans, liquidity constraints and local credit supply: evidence from Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Michele Benvenuti

    (Bank of Italy)

  • Luca Casolaro

    (Bank of Italy)

  • Emanuele Ciani

    (Bank of Italy)

Abstract

Using data from the Italian Survey on Household Income and Wealth from 1995 to 2014, we study the relation between informal credit (loans from relatives and friends) and a household's access to bank credit. While most of the literature has focused on the substitutability channel, we highlight that even households with full access to the formal credit market are more likely to be indebted to relatives or friends when compared to those not interested in formal loans. This complementarity is stronger for households who have problems paying back their loans, suggesting the presence of a caretaker effect on the part of relatives and friends towards distressed families. Finally, we estimate the overall impact of an expansion of local credit supply on the diffusion of informal loans, using an IV approach. The results suggest that the complementarity effect prevails, but the positive effect on informal loans is economically very small.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Benvenuti & Luca Casolaro & Emanuele Ciani, 2017. "Informal loans, liquidity constraints and local credit supply: evidence from Italy," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1099, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1099_17
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/temi-discussione/2017/2017-1099/en_tema_1099.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emanuele Ciani & Claudio Deiana, 2018. "No free lunch, buddy: past housing transfers and informal care later in life," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 971-1001, December.
    2. Degryse, Hans & Lu, Liping & Ongena, Steven, 2013. "Informal or formal financing? Or both? First evidence on the co-funding of Chinese firms," BOFIT Discussion Papers 14/2013, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    3. Guiso, Luigi & Jappelli, Tullio & Terlizzese, Daniele, 1996. "Income Risk, Borrowing Constraints, and Portfolio Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 158-172, March.
    4. John Y. Campbell, 2006. "Household Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1553-1604, August.
    5. Nicoletta Batini & Young-Bae Kim & Paul Levine & Emanuela Lotti, 2009. "Informal Labour and Credit Markets: A Survey," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0609, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    6. Donald Cox, 1990. "Intergenerational Transfers and Liquidity Constraints," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(1), pages 187-217.
    7. Kochar, Anjini, 1997. "An empirical investigation of rationing constraints in rural credit markets in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 339-371, August.
    8. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2009. "Does Local Financial Development Matter?," Springer Books, in: Damiano Bruno Silipo (ed.), The Banks and the Italian Economy, chapter 0, pages 31-66, Springer.
    9. Degryse, H.A. & Lu, L. & Ongena, S., 2013. "Informal or Formal Financing? Or Both? First Evidence on the Co-Funding of Chinese Firms," Other publications TiSEM fb098792-3f60-4635-a8f6-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Guirkinger, Catherine, 2008. "Understanding the Coexistence of Formal and Informal Credit Markets in Piura, Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1436-1452, August.
    11. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    12. Campero Alejandra & Kaiser Karen, 2013. "Access to Credit: Awareness and Use of Formal and Informal Credit Institutions," Working Papers 2013-07, Banco de México.
    13. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    14. Luca Casolaro & Leonardo Gambacorta & Luigi Guiso, 2005. "Regulation, formal and informal enforcement and the development of the household loan market. Lessons from Italy," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 560, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    15. 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.
    16. Karaivanov, Alexander & Kessler, Anke, 2018. "(Dis)advantages of informal loans – Theory and evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 100-128.
    17. Jain, Sanjay, 1999. "Symbiosis vs. crowding-out: the interaction of formal and informal credit markets in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 419-444, August.
    18. repec:zbw:bofitp:2013_014 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Zanin, Luca, 2017. "Determinants of the conditional probability that a household has informal loans given liquidity constraints regarding access to credit banking channels," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 16-24.
    20. Samuel Lee & Petra Persson, 2016. "Financing from Family and Friends," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(9), pages 2341-2386.
    21. Degryse, Hans & Lu, Liping & Ongena, Steven, 2016. "Informal or formal financing? Evidence on the co-funding of Chinese firms," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 31-50.
    22. Arnott, Richard & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1991. "Moral Hazard and Nonmarket Institutions: Dysfunctional Crowding Out or Peer Monitoring?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(1), pages 179-190, March.
    23. Isabelle Guérin & Marc Roesch & Govidan Venkatasubramanian & Bert D'Espallier, 2012. "Credit from whom and for what? The diversity of borrowing sources and uses in rural southern India," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24, pages 122-137, January.
    24. Marcello Bofondi & Tiziano Ropele, 2011. "Macroeconomic determinants of bad loans: evidence from Italian banks," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 89, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    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. Zanin, Luca, 2018. "Private monetary transfers between households: Who is helped and by whom?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 76-82.
    2. Francisco Fernández López, 2017. "Impacto de la informalidad laboral sobre el acceso a crédito formal," Coyuntura Económica, Fedesarrollo, vol. 47(1 y 2), pages 169-204.
    3. Yin, Zhichao & Wang, Rui & Wu, Xi, 2023. "Financial inclusion, natural disasters and energy poverty: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

    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. Mertzanis, Charilaos, 2019. "Family ties, institutions and financing constraints in developing countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    2. Lei, Jie & Bai, Yiyi & Kong, Dongmin, 2024. "Bank competition and household informal credit," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    3. Hou, Liming & Hsueh, Shao-Chieh & Zhang, Shuoxun, 2020. "Does formal financial development crowd in informal financing? Evidence from Chinese private enterprises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 288-301.
    4. Morvant-Roux, Solène & Guérin, Isabelle & Roesch, Marc & Moisseron, Jean-Yves, 2014. "Adding Value to Randomization with Qualitative Analysis: The Case of Microcredit in Rural Morocco," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 302-312.
    5. Conning, Jonathan & Udry, Christopher, 2007. "Rural Financial Markets in Developing Countries," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 56, pages 2857-2908, Elsevier.
    6. Lijuan Xu & Abbas Ali Chandio & Jingyi Wang & Yuansheng Jiang, 2022. "Does Farmland Tenancy Improve Household Asset Allocation? Evidence from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Galema, Rients, 2020. "Credit rationing in P2P lending to SMEs: Do lender-borrower relationships matter?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Levine, Ross, 2005. "Finance and Growth: Theory and Evidence," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 12, pages 865-934, Elsevier.
    9. Mishra, Aswini Kumar & Bhardwaj, Vedant, 2022. "Financial access and household’s borrowing: Policy perspectives of an emerging economy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 981-999.
    10. Meghana Ayyagari & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2010. "Formal versus Informal Finance: Evidence from China," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(8), pages 3048-3097, August.
    11. Nguyen Viet, Cuong & Van den Berg, Marrit, 2011. "The impact of Informal Credit on Poverty and Inequality: The Case of Vietnam," MPRA Paper 54758, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Beck, Thorsten & Lu, Liping & Yang, Rudai, 2015. "Finance and Growth for Microenterprises: Evidence from Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 38-56.
    13. Karaivanov, Alexander & Kessler, Anke, 2018. "(Dis)advantages of informal loans – Theory and evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 100-128.
    14. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Meijun & Xie, Jing, 2019. "Understanding informal financing," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 19-33.
    15. Becker, Gideon & Dimpfl, Thomas, 2014. "Labor income risk and the reluctance of fouseholds to invest in risky financial assets: A panel data analysis," University of Tübingen Working Papers in Business and Economics 72, University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, School of Business and Economics.
    16. Menkhoff, Lukas & Rungruxsirivorn, Ornsiri, 2009. "Village Funds and Access to Finance in Rural Thailand," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-417, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    17. Carlos Carreira & Filipe Silva, 2010. "No Deep Pockets: Some Stylized Empirical Results On Firms’ Financial Constraints," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 731-753, September.
    18. Ben R. Craig & William E. Jackson & James B. Thomson, 2007. "On government intervention in the small-firm credit market and its effect on economic performance," Working Papers (Old Series) 0702, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    19. Bach Nguyen & Nguyen Phuc Canh, 2021. "Formal and informal financing decisions of small businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1545-1567, October.
    20. Anjali Kumar & Manuela Francisco, 2005. "Enterprise Size, Financing Patterns, and Credit Constraints in Brazil : Analysis of Data from the Investment Climate Assessment Survey," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7330, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    informal credit; local credit markets; inter vivos transfers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

    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:bdi:wptemi:td_1099_17. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdigvit.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.