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Trade Credit as a Competitiveness Tool;Evidence from Developing Countries

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  • Van Horen, Neeltje

Abstract

Statistics show that the sale of goods on credit is widespread among firms even when they are financially constrained and thus face relatively high costs in providing trade credit. A possible explanation for this is the use of trade credit as a competitiveness tool. By analyzing both the impact of customer as well as producer market power on a firm’s decision to provide trade credit, we examine whether trade credit is indeed used as a way to lock in customers by firms in developing countries. Using a new dataset containing a large number of firms in 42 developing countries, we find strong evidence that an important driving force behind the decision to provide trade credit is the urge to be competitive. This especially holds for those firms that still have to establish a solid market reputation and for firms located in countries with an underdeveloped banking sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Van Horen, Neeltje, 2004. "Trade Credit as a Competitiveness Tool;Evidence from Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 2792, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Mar 2005.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:2792
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Fabbri, Daniela & Klapper, Leora, 2008. "Market power and the matching of trade credit terms," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4754, The World Bank.
    2. Dary, Stanley, 2017. "Trade Credit Financing In African Agro-Food Manufacturing Industry: Incidence And Motives," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252850, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    3. Galia Taseva, 2012. "Trade Credit Terms between the Firms in Bulgaria," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 110-136.
    4. Niels Hermes & Robert Lensink & Clemens Lutz & Uyen Nguyen Lam Thu, 2016. "Trade credit use and competition in the value chain," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 24(4), pages 765-795, October.
    5. Issal Haj-Salem & Khaled Hussainey, 2021. "Does Risk Disclosure Matter for Trade Credit?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-13, March.
    6. Leora Klapper & Luc Laeven & Raghuram Rajan, 2012. "Trade Credit Contracts," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(3), pages 838-867.
    7. Galya Taseva, 2012. "Overdue Intercorporate Debts in Bulgaria," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 76-94.
    8. Hyndman, Kyle & Serio, Giovanni, 2010. "Competition and inter-firm credit: Theory and evidence from firm-level data in Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 88-108, September.
    9. Tsuruta, Daisuke & Uchida, Hirofumi, 2019. "The real driver of trade credit," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    10. Zhou, Zhongsheng & Li, Zhuo, 2023. "Corporate digital transformation and trade credit financing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    11. Klapper, Leora, 2006. "The role of factoring for financing small and medium enterprises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 3111-3130, November.
    12. Alarcón, Silverio, 2008. "The Role of Trade Credit in the Spanish Agrogood Industry," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 43861, European Association of Agricultural Economists.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

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