Trade credit and bank relationships: evidence from pre-World War I Belgium

We investigate the determinants of trade credit granted by suppliers in a historical environment which was characterized by high information asymmetries and strong banks, focusing on the role of bank-firm relationships. Our results, which are based on a unique sample of 535 firm-year observations for 125 listed Belgian firms in four dominant industries in the period 1905-1909, are generally consistent with the financing role of trade credit. They suggest that trade credit was a tool for channeling funds from firms with close bank ties to other firms, which is consistent with findings for conte... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Deloof, Marc
Overfelt, Wouter van
Dokumenttyp: journal article
Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
Verlag/Hrsg.: USA
Schlagwörter: Wirtschaft / Geschichte / Economics / History / trade credit / bank-firm relationships / Pre-World War I Belgium / economic institutions / Economic Sectors / Social History / Historical Social Research / Financial Planning / Accountancy / Sozialgeschichte / historische Sozialforschung / Wirtschaftssektoren / Finanzwirtschaft / Rechnungswesen
Sprache: unknown
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-28942567
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/24305

We investigate the determinants of trade credit granted by suppliers in a historical environment which was characterized by high information asymmetries and strong banks, focusing on the role of bank-firm relationships. Our results, which are based on a unique sample of 535 firm-year observations for 125 listed Belgian firms in four dominant industries in the period 1905-1909, are generally consistent with the financing role of trade credit. They suggest that trade credit was a tool for channeling funds from firms with close bank ties to other firms, which is consistent with findings for contemporary developing countries.