Corporate governance, investor protection, and performance in emerging markets

Recent research studying the link between law, and finance has concentrated on country-level investor protection measures, and focused on differences in legal systems across countries, and legal families. The authors extend this literature, and provide a study of firm-level corporate governance practices across emerging markets, and a greater understanding of the environments under which corporate governance matters more. Their empirical tests show that better corporate governance is highly correlated with better operating performance, and market valuation. More important, the authors provide evidence showing that firm-level corporate governance provisions, matter more in countries with weak legal environments. These results suggest that firms can partially compensate for ineffective laws, and enforcement by establishing good governance, and providing credible investor protection. The authors'tests also show that firm-level governance, and performance is lower in countries with weak legal environments, suggesting that improving the legal system, should remain a priority for policymakers.Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Municipal Financial Management,Decentralization,Banks&Banking Reform,Governance Indicators,National Governance,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Economic Policy, Institutions and Governance

Bankruptcy around the world - explanations of its relative use

The recent literature on law and finance has drawn attention to the importance of creditor rights in influencing the development of financial systems and in affecting firm corporate governance and financing patterns. Recent financial crises have also highlighted the importance of insolvency systems to resolve corporate sector financial distress. The literature and crises have emphasized the complex role of creditor rights, affecting not only the efficiency of ex-post resolution of distressed corporations, but also influencing ex-ante risk-taking incentives and an economy's degree of entrepreneurship more generally. The authors document how often bankruptcy is actually being used for a panel of 35 countries. Next they investigate the effects of specific design features of insolvency regimes in relation to the quality of the countries'overall judicial systems on the use of bankruptcy. The authors find, correcting for overall financial development and macroeconomic shocks, that bankruptcies are higher in Anglo-Saxon countries and in market-oriented financial systems characterized by weaker and multiple banking relationships. They also find that greater judicial efficiency is associated with more use of bankruptcy, but that the combination of stronger creditor rights with greater judicial efficiency leads to less use. The authors find that the presence of a"stay on assets"leads to fewer bankruptcies independent of the efficiency of the judicial system. These findings suggest that there are important incentive effects of insolvency systems encouraging less risky behavior and more out-of-court settlements.Labor Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Strategic Debt Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Strategic Debt Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Housing Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Legal Products

Bankruptcy around the World: Explanations of its Relative Use

The recent literature on law and finance has drawn attention to the importance of creditor rights in influencing the development of financial systems and in affecting firm corporate governance and financing patterns. Recent financial crises have also highlighted the importance of insolvency systems - a key element of creditor rights - to prevent and resolve corporate sector financial distress. The literature and crises have highlighted the role that creditor rights play in not only affecting the efficiency of ex-post resolution of distressed corporations, but also in influencing ex-ante risk-taking incentives and an economy's degree of entrepreneurship more generally. Yet, little is known on how much formal insolvency systems are actually being used, how the use of the courts to resolve financial distress relates to creditor rights, and whether any specific creditor rights matter more. This paper starts with documenting how often bankruptcy is used in a panel of 35 countries. It next investigates the relation between specific design features of insolvency regimes and the use of bankruptcy, considering also the quality of countries’ judicial systems. We find, controlling for overall development and macroeconomic shocks, that bankruptcies are higher in common-law countries and in market-oriented financial systems. Stronger creditor rights are generally associated with more use of bankruptcy, except for the presence of a "stay on assets" that is associated with fewer use of bankruptcy. Greater judicial efficiency is associated with more use of bankruptcy, but there is some substitution between stronger creditor rights and greater judicial efficiency. These findings suggest that the relationship between specific creditor rights features and the use of bankruptcy systems is more complex than perhaps thought. It may also help clarify the relationships between creditor rights, the development of financial systems, corporate ownership, and financing patterns.

The ability of banks to lend to informationally opaque small businesses

Consolidation of the banking industry is shifting assets into larger institutions that often operate in many nations. Large international financial institutions are geared toward serving large wholesale customers. How does this affect the banking system's ability to lend to informationally opaque small businesses? The authors test hypotheses about the effects of bank size, foreign ownership, and distress on lending to informationally opaque small firms, using a rich new data set on Argentinean banks, firms, and loans. They also test hypotheses about borrowing from a single bank versus borrowing from several banks. Their results suggest that large and foreign-owned institutions may have difficulty extending relationship loans to opaque small firms, especially if small businesses are delinquent in repaying their loans. Bank distress resulting from lax prudential supervision and regulation appears to have no greater effect on small borrowers than on large borrowers, although even small firms may react to bank distress by borrowing from multiple banks, despite raising borrowing costs and destroying some of the benefits of exclusive lending relationships.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform,Decentralization,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Economic Theory&Research

Legal effectiveness and external capital : the role of foreign debt

Previous research has documented weak, and sometimes conflicting, effects of legal quality on measures of firm debt. Using WorldScope data for 1,689 firms, as well as more detailed proprietary data for 315 firms across nine East Asian countries, the authors find that access to foreign financing appears to loosen borrowing constraints associated with poor legal systems. This helps resolve inconsistencies in prior findings and explains how legal protection is important for borrowing by firms. In particular, they find that legal effectiveness is important for determining the amount, maturity, and currency denomination of debt. The authors discuss several mechanisms by which firms can avoid the costs of poor legal systems with foreign borrowing. The paper contributes to the policy debate surrounding the importance of creditor rights for domestic lending.Municipal Financial Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation,Environmental Economics&Policies

The typology of partial credit guarantee funds around the world

This paper presents data on 76 partial credit guarantee schemes across 46 developed and developing countries. Based on theory, the authors discuss different organizational features of credit guarantee schemes and their variation across countries. They focus on the respective role of government and the private sector and different pricing and risk reduction tools and how they are correlated across countries. The findings show that government has an important role to play in funding and management, but less so in risk assessment and recovery. There is a surprisingly low use of risk-based pricing and limited use of risk management mechanisms.

Further evidence on the link between finance and growth: An international analysis of community banking and economic performance

We seek to contribute to both the finance-growth literature and the community banking literature by testing the effects of the relative health of community banks on economic growth and investigating potential transmission mechanisms for these effects using data from 1993–2000 on 49 nations. Data from both developed and developing nations suggest that larger market shares and higher efficiency rankings for small, private, domestically owned banks are associated with better economic performance, and that the marginal benefits of larger shares are greater when the banks are more efficient. Only mixed support is found for hypothesized transmission mechanisms through improved financing for SMEs or greater overall bank credit flows. The data from developing nations is also consistent with favourable economic effects from foreign-owned banks, but unfavourable effects from state-owned banks.banks; community banking; SMEs; financial development; economic growth; international

Further evidence on the link between finance and growth: An international analysis of community banking and economic performance

We seek to contribute to both the finance-growth literature and the community banking literature by testing the effects of the relative health of community banks on economic growth and investigating potential transmission mechanisms for these effects using data from 1993–2000 on 49 nations. Data from both developed and developing nations suggest that larger market shares and higher efficiency rankings for small, private, domestically owned banks are associated with better economic performance, and that the marginal benefits of larger shares are greater when the banks are more efficient. Only mixed support is found for hypothesized transmission mechanisms through improved financing for SMEs or greater overall bank credit flows. The data from developing nations is also consistent with favourable economic effects from foreign-owned banks, but unfavourable effects from state-owned banks.banks, community banking, SMEs, financial development, economic growth, international

What does"entrepreneurship"data really show ? a comparison of the global entrepreneurship monitor and World Bank group datasets

This paper compares two datasets designed to measure entrepreneurship. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor dataset captures early-stage entrepreneurial activity; the World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey dataset captures formal business registration. There are a number of important differences when the data are compared. First, GEM data tend to report significantly greater levels of early-stage entrepreneurship in developing economies than do the World Bank data. The World Bank data tend to be greater than GEM data for developed countries. Second, the magnitude of the difference between the datasets across countries is related to the local institutional and environmental conditions for entrepreneurs, after controlling for levels of economic development. A possible explanation for this is that the World Bank data measure rates of entry in the formal economy, whereas GEM data are reflective of entrepreneurial intent and capture informality of entrepreneurship. This is particularly true for developing countries. Therefore, this discrepancy can be interpreted as the spread between individuals who could potentially operate businesses in the formal sector - and those that actually do so: In other words, GEM data may represent the potential supply of entrepreneurs, whereas the World Bank data may represent the actual rate of entrepreneurship. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs in developed countries have greater ease and incentives to incorporate, both for the benefits of greater access to formal financing and labor contracts, as well as for tax and other purposes not directly related to business activities.Banks&Banking Reform,E-Business,Access to Finance,Microfinance,Information Security&Privacy