Household External Finance and Consumption

This paper uses mortgage data to construct a measure of terms on which households access to external finance, and relates it to consumption at both the aggregate and cohort levels. The Household External Finance (HEF) index is based on the spread paid by risky borrowers in the mortgage market. There is evidence that the terms of access to external finance matter more for the consumption of young cohorts in UK data. Results are robust to a wide variety of specifications.external finance; terms of access; household consumption; birth cohorts; pseudo panels

Real Estate, the External Finance Premium and Business Investment: A Quantitative Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis

This paper studies the connection between the capital market and the real estate market. Empirically, we find that positive real house price shocks lower the external finance premium and stimulate nonresidential investment and real GDP. Our theoretical framework is able to mimic the volatility of the external finance premium, the relative price of real estate and capital, and the investment in real estate and capital. It also captures the cyclicality of the external finance premium and of real estate prices. The contribution of real estate price fluctuations to the variability of the external finance premium and the GDP is confirmed to be significant.External Finance Premium, Residential and Corporate Real Estate, Capital Market Imperfections, Equilibrium Default, Real Estate Price Volatility.

An Empirical Analysis of the External Finance Premium of Public Non-Financial Corporations in Brazil

Our objective in this paper is to analyze empirically the relationship between the external finance premium of non-financial corporations in Brazil with their default probability and with their demand for inventories. As for the former relation, we find that corporations that have greater external finance premium have greater probability of default. As for the latter, we find that the external finance premium is positive and statistically significantly correlated. The results confirm previous results of the literature that indicate that the balance sheet channel of monetary policy is relevant in Brazil.

Evidence on the external finance premium from the US and emerging Asian corporate bond markets

Empirical investigation of the external finance premium has been conducted on the margin between internal finance and bank borrowing or equities but little attention has been given to corporate bonds especially for the emerging Asian market. In this paper we hypothesize that balance sheet indicators of creditworthiness could affect the external finance premium for bonds as they do for premia in other markets. Using bond-specific and firm-specific data for the United States, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand during 1995-2005 we find that firms with better financial health face lower external finance premia in all countries. When we introduce firm-level heterogeneity we show that financial variables appear to be both statistically and quantitatively more important in the Asian market than in the US. Finally, the premium is more sensitive to firm-level variables during credit crunches, recessions and sudden stops than other periods, with stronger effects for the Asian bond market.Financing Constraints, External Finance Premium, Asian Bond Markets.

Employment Flows with Endogenous Financing Constraints

Empirical studies document that resource reallocation across production units plays an important role in accounting for aggregate productivity growth in the U.S. manufacturing. Distortions in financial market could hinder the reallocation process and hencemay adversely affect aggregate productivity growth. This paper studies the quantitative impact of costly external finance on aggregate productivity through resource reallocation across firms with idiosyncratic productivity shocks. A partial equilibrium model calibrated to the U.S. manufacturing data shows that costly external finance causes inefficient output reallocation from high productivity firms to low productivity firms and as a result leads to a 1 percent loss in aggregate TFP.Costly external Finance; Reallocation; Output weighted aggregate productivity

The External Finance Premium and the Macroeconomy: US post-WWII Evidence

This paper embeds the financial accelerator into a medium-scale DSGE model and estimates it using Bayesian methods. Incorporation of financial frictions enhances the model's description of the main macroeconomic aggregates. The financial accelerator accounts for approximately ten percent of monetary policy transmission. The model-consistent premium for external finance compares well to observable proxies of the premium, such as the high-yield spread. Fluctuations in the external finance premium are primarily driven by investment supply and monetary policy shocks. In terms of recession prediction, false signals of the premium can be given an economic interpretationfinancial accelerator, external finance premium, DSGE model, Bayesian estimation

Circular 01/17 : funding : audit of the use of funds in external institutions 2000/01 : guidance and request for audit reports

"This circular provides guidance to external institutions on the preparation of a statement showing the use of their funding allocations for the academic year 1 August 2000 to 31 July 2001. Each institution should arrange for its statement to be audited. Each LEA-maintained external institution should arrange for its return to be signed by the chief finance officer of the local authority prior to the audit. Audit reports should be returned to the responsible local Learning and Skills Council (LLSC) office by 4 February 2002. Independent (non-LEA-maintained) external institutions are also requested to provide a set of their latest audited financial statements. This circular is of interest to heads of external institutions, chief education officers, local authority chief finance officers, external auditors of external institutions and principals of colleges" -- front cover

REMITTANCES: THE NEW DEVELOPMENT MANTRA?

Remittances have emerged as an important source of external development finance for developing countries in recent years. This paper examines the causes and implications of remittance flows. It first highlights the severe limitations in remittance data, in sharp contrast to other sources of external finance. It then examines the key trends in remittance flows, and their importance relative to other sources of external finance. The paper subsequently analyses the many complex economic and political effects of remittances. It highlights the fact that remittances are the most stable source of external finance and play a critical social insurance role in many countries afflicted by economic and political crises. While remittances are generally pro-poor, their effects are greatest on transient poverty. However, the long-term effects on structural poverty are less clear, principally because the consequences of remittances on long-term economic development are not well understood. The paper then concludes with some policy options. It suggests a role for an international organization to intermediate these flows to lower transaction costs and increase transparency, which would both enhance these flows and maximize their benefits

Asset Pricing Implications of Firms' Financing Constraints

We incorporate costly external finance in an investment-based asset pricing model and investigate whether financing frictions are quantitatively important for pricing a cross-section of expected returns. We show that common assumptions about the nature of the financing frictions are captured by a simple financing cost' function, equal to the product of the financing premium and the amount of external finance. This approach provides a tractable framework for empirical analysis. Using GMM, we estimate a pricing kernel that incorporates the effects of financing constraints on investment behavior. The key ingredients in this pricing kernel depend not only on fundamentals', such as profits and investment, but also on the financing variables, such as default premium and the amount of external financing. Our findings, however, suggest that the role played by financing frictions is fairly negligible, unless the premium on external funds is procyclical, a property not evident in the data and not satisfied by most models of costly external finance.

When do enterprises prefer informal credit ?

This paper tests the hypothesis that enterprises may forgo formal finance in lieu of informal credit by choice. They do so to avoid the additional regulatory scrutiny and harassment that engaging with the formal financial sector invites. We test this hypothesis using enterprise-level data on 3,564 enterprises in 29 countries. In this sample, enterprises finance approximately 57 percent of their working capital requirements with external finance. This external finance comes from formal sources, such as commercial banks (53 percent) and informal sources (42 percent), such as trade creditors, or family and friends. In our sample, 14 percent of enterprises rely exclusively on informal finance. We find that the likelihood of enterprises preferring to only use informal finance is inversely related to the quality of the regulatory environment, particularly the quality of tax administration and overall governance. For example, we find that when an enterprise has been asked for bribes by tax inspectors, it is 17 percent more likely to prefer informal finance.Access to Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Debt Markets,,Small and Medium Size Enterprises