IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa13p798.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does your neighbour know you better? Local banks and credit tightening in the financial crisis

Author

Listed:
  • carlotta rossi
  • giorgia barboni

Abstract

This paper is a study about the effect of relationship lending on credit availability for Italian firms, with a special focus on the 2008-09 financial crises. According to the conventional wisdom, the central principle of relationship finance is that that personal interaction between bankers and small borrowers creates information efficiency that allow credit to flow more efficiently and commerce to grow more. The recent financial crisis would have revived the role of relationship lending: a natural implication of information asymmetries in credit markets is that, in a period of high risk aversion and borrowers' opaqueness- as it is in a financial crisis-, the comparative advantage of producing soft information should become far more relevant. Against this background, this paper focuses on the supply side of the Italian credit market by testing the prediction that, during the financial crisis, firms relying more on local banks have been less credit rationed than other firms. To this end, first, we develop an index, based on banks' credit concentration across local credit markets, which helps us to identify local financial intermediaries. Second, we develop a sample of 3.281 firms from 2006 to 2009 for which we have full information on credit rationing from the Survey of Industrial and Service Firms from Bank of Italy (INVIND survey), as well as balance sheet data from the Cerved dataset, and relationship lending information from the Credit Register (CR) dataset. Third, we test empirically if firms financed by local banks experienced a lower credit rationing during the 2008-09 crisis than other firms. The main result of the paper is that firms predominantly funded by local banks have been less rationed during the 2008-09 financial crisis. This result holds when we consider also the firm and bank characteristics, the shape of the bank-firm relationship, and the features of the local credit market where the firm is located. Our findings support the view that local banks may address firms' financial needs in a better way than not local banks because of their comparative advantage at collecting local information. This advantage appears to be relevant in a period of high risk aversion as the recent financial crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • carlotta rossi & giorgia barboni, 2013. "Does your neighbour know you better? Local banks and credit tightening in the financial crisis," ERSA conference papers ersa13p798, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa13p798
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa13/ERSA2013_paper_00798.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kwangwoo Park & George Pennacchi, 2009. "Harming Depositors and Helping Borrowers: The Disparate Impact of Bank Consolidation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 1-40, January.
    2. Robert DeYoung & William Hunter & Gregory Udell, 2004. "Whither the Community Bank?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 81-84, April.
    3. Pietro Alessandrini & Andrea F. Presbitero & Alberto Zazzaro, 2010. "Bank size or distance: what hampers innovation adoption by SMEs?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(6), pages 845-881, November.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Allen N. Berger & Gregory F. Udell, 2002. "Small Business Credit Availability and Relationship Lending: The Importance of Bank Organisational Structure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages 32-53, February.
    7. Fabio Panetta & Fabiano Schivardi & Matthew Shum, 2009. "Do Mergers Improve Information? Evidence from the Loan Market," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(4), pages 673-709, June.
    8. Ellison, Glenn & Glaeser, Edward L, 1997. "Geographic Concentration in U.S. Manufacturing Industries: A Dartboard Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 889-927, October.
    9. Gabriel Jiménez & Atif R. Mian & José-Luis Peydró & Jesús Saurina, 2010. "Local Versus Aggregate Lending Channels: The Effects Of Securitization On Corporate Credit Supply In Spain," NBER Working Papers 16595, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Cole, Rebel A. & Goldberg, Lawrence G. & White, Lawrence J., 2004. "Cookie Cutter vs. Character: The Micro Structure of Small Business Lending by Large and Small Banks," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(2), pages 227-251, June.
    11. Hannan, Timothy H. & Prager, Robin A., 2004. "The competitive implications of multimarket bank branching," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1889-1914, August.
    12. Hannan, Timothy H. & Prager, Robin A., 2009. "The profitability of small single-market banks in an era of multi-market banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 263-271, February.
    13. Ferrando, Annalisa & Griesshaber, Nicolas, 2011. "Financing obstacles among euro area firms: Who suffers the most?," Working Paper Series 1293, European Central Bank.
    14. Valerio Vacca, 2011. "An unexpected crisis? Looking at pricing effectiveness of different banks," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 814, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    15. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    16. Pietro ALESSANDRINI & Andrea PRESBITERO & Alberto ZAZZARO, 2006. "Banks, Distances and Financing Constraints for Firms," Working Papers 266, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    17. Williams, Ross A., 1991. "Measuring submarket specialisation by firms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 291-294, July.
    18. Emilia Bonaccorsi di Patti & Enrico Sette, 2012. "Bank balance sheets and the transmission of financial shocks to borrowers: evidence from the 2007-2008 crisis," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 848, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    19. Jeremy C. Stein, 2002. "Information Production and Capital Allocation: Decentralized versus Hierarchical Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 1891-1921, October.
    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. Maria Lucia Stefani & Valerio Vacca & Daniele Coin & Silvia Del Prete & Cristina Demma & Maddalena Galardo & Iconio Garri & Sauro Mocetti & Dario Pellegrino, 2016. "When local banks lend to local communities: evidence from Italy (2007-2014)," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 324, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    2. Roberto Antonietti & Giulio Cainelli & Monica Ferrari & Stefania Tomasini, 2015. "Banks, related variety and firms’ investments," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 89-99, March.

    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. Barboni, Giorgia & Rossi, Carlotta, 2019. "Does your neighbour know you better? The supportive role of local banks in the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 514-526.
    2. Dorel N. Manitiu & Giulio Pedrini, 2017. "The countercyclical role of Italian local banks during the financial crisis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(27), pages 2679-2696, June.
    3. Degryse, H.A. & Cerqueiro, G.M. & Ongena, S., 2007. "Distance, Bank Organizational Structure and Credit," Other publications TiSEM 34c2f607-3395-4fd9-9c52-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Dean F. Amel & Robin A. Prager, 2014. "Community Bank Performance: How Important are Managers?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2014-26, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    5. Song Zhang & Liang Han & Konstantinos Kallias & Antonios Kallias, 2021. "The value of in-person banking: evidence from U.S. small businesses," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1393-1435, November.
    6. Shusen Qi & Ralph De Haas & Steven Ongena & Stefan Straetmans & Tamas Vadasz, 2017. "Move a Little Closer? Information Sharing and the Spatial Clustering of Bank Branches," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 17-74, Swiss Finance Institute, revised Jun 2023.
    7. Allen N. Berger & Astrid A. Dick & Lawrence G. Goldberg & Lawrence J. White, 2007. "Competition from Large, Multimarket Firms and the Performance of Small, Single‐Market Firms: Evidence from the Banking Industry," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(2‐3), pages 331-368, March.
    8. Fredriksson, Antti & Moro, Andrea, 2014. "Bank–SMEs relationships and banks’ risk-adjusted profitability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 67-77.
    9. Ferri, Giovanni & Murro, Pierluigi, 2015. "Do firm–bank ‘odd couples’ exacerbate credit rationing?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 231-251.
    10. de Haas, Ralph & Lu, Liping & Ongena, S.R.G., 2018. "Clear and Close Competitors? : On the Causes and Consequences of Bilateral Competition between Banks," Other publications TiSEM e9f86045-13c5-49d9-85df-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. DeYoung, Robert & Frame, W. Scott & Glennon, Dennis & McMillen, Daniel P. & Nigro, Peter, 2008. "Commercial lending distance and historically underserved areas," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(1-2), pages 149-164.
    12. Ryan Niladri Banerjee & Leonardo Gambacorta & Enrico Sette, 2017. "The real effects of relationship lending," BIS Working Papers 662, Bank for International Settlements.
    13. Andrea F. Presbitero & Gregory F. Udell & Alberto Zazzaro, 2014. "The Home Bias and the Credit Crunch: A Regional Perspective," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(s1), pages 53-85, February.
    14. Berger, Allen N. & Goulding, William & Rice, Tara, 2014. "Do small businesses still prefer community banks?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 264-278.
    15. Presbitero, Andrea F. & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2011. "Competition and relationship lending: Friends or foes?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 387-413, July.
    16. Djedidi-Kooli, Salima, 2009. "L’accès au financement des PME en France : quel rôle joué par la structure du système bancaire ?," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/8354 edited by Etner, François.
    17. Hassan, M. Kabir & Karim, M. Sydul & Lawrence, Shari & Risfandy, Tastaftiyan, 2022. "Weathering the COVID-19 storm: The case of community banks," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    18. Elyasiani, Elyas & Goldberg, Lawrence G., 2004. "Relationship lending: a survey of the literature," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 315-330.
    19. Hirofumi Uchida, 2011. "What Do Banks Evaluate When They Screen Borrowers? Soft Information, Hard Information and Collateral," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 40(1), pages 29-48, October.
    20. Porzio, Claudio & Sampagnaro, Gabriele & Verdoliva, Vincenzo, 2020. "Lost in Translation: The determinants and the effect of soft information dispersion in bank lending," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    community banking; financial crisis;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa13p798. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    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.