Survey of Small Business Finances SSBF index

The bibliography ia a running record of the work being done using SSBF data. Selected abstracts are also provided. The references are grouped by survey data year. The listings consists of all the articles we are aware of and are periodically updated. Even with the ongoing efforts, these listings are not complete. Please fill out a "Contact Us" form, selecting 'staff group: Survey of Small Business Finances,' to let us know of any work missing from our list so we can add the reference and abstract to our site.
Note: Only selected PDF files for hard-to-find FRB staff papers are available through links on this webpage.

LAST UPDATED: October 24, 2006

Bibliography:
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Selected Abstracts:
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Survey of Small Business Finances Selected Abstracts

2003 SSBF

Mach, Traci L. and John D. Wolken "Financial Services Used by Small Businesses:

Evidence from THe 2003 Survey of Small Business Finances."

October 24, 2006.

Presents newly available data from the Board's latest Survey of Small Business Finances. Provides detailed information on small business use of credit and other financial services and gives selected comparisons from previous surveys.
Federal Reserve Bulletin Index

1998 SSBF

Alphonse, Pascal, Jacqueline Ducret and Eric Séverin. "When trade credit

facilitates access to bank finance: Evidence from U.S. small business data."

Univeristy of Lille. Mimeographed: October 2003.

When trade credit is traditionally considered as a substitute for bank loans, recent theoretical papers (e.g. Biais and Gollier (1997)) suggest that bank debt and trade credit can also be considered as two complementary sources of financing.

By using U.S. small businesses data (NSSBF 1998), this paper provides an empirical analysis of these hypotheses. The empirical findings are consistent with the hypothesis that trade credit helps firms to improve their reputation. The results show that trade credit can work as a signal about firms' quality and thus facilitates access to bank debt.

Bitler, Marianne. "Effects of the Level of Interviewer Effort on the Characteristics

of Completed Responses: An Experiment Using the 1998 Survey of Small

Business Finances." Proceedings of the Second International Conference on

Establishment Surveys, June 17-21, 2000, Buffalo, NY.

All surveys contain a mix of interviews that required more or less effort to complete. Difficult cases are often given to interviewers specializing in refusal conversion or are given incentives to cooperate. Use of these refusal conversion experts can increase response rates among hard to reach subjects. Analysis not explicitly controlling for interviewer effort assumes that the easy to interview and hard to interview cases are statistically identical except for difficulty in completing the interviews. Violations of the assumption of "no interviewer treatment effect" question the validity of comparisons not controlling for ease of interview completion. The 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances (SSBF) allows us to test the assumption of no interviewer effect. This paper presents preliminary data suggesting that interviewer effects may be important for this data set. It also presents analysis of the effects of incentives on completion rates.
Article (122 KB PDF)

Bitler, Marianne. "Small Businesses and Computers: Adoption and Performance."

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Working Paper: 2001-15.

Until recently, little evidence suggested that the computer revolution of recent decades has had much impact on aggregate economic growth. Analysis at the worker level has found evidence that use of computers is associated with higher wages. Although some research questions whether this finding is solely due to unobserved heterogeneity in worker quality, others point to such results as evidence that the wage premia for skilled workers have increased over time. Adoption of new technologies is associated with higher productivity and higher productivity growth. As in the worker literature, firms adopting computers may simply be more productive firms. Using new data from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances, I examine the determinants of computer adoption by small privately-held firms and analyze whether computer use affects profits, sales, labor productivity, or other measures of firm success. I am able to control for many firm characteristics not available in other data sets. I find that computer adoption is more likely by larger firms, by younger firms, by firms whose markets are national or international, and by limited liability firms. Adoption is also more likely by firms founded or inherited by a current owner and by firms whose primary owners are more educated. Firms with more than 50% of their ownership shares held by African Americans or Asians, and, in some specifications, firms with more than 50% of their shares held by Hispanics are less likely to have adopted computers, echoing results for households in the literature. Evidence concerning the link between computer use and firm performance is mixed. Current performance as measured by profits or sales is not associated with current computer use in the full sample. In some specifications, use of computers for specific tasks is associated with higher costs. Estimates of the effects of computer use on costs are larger (in absolute value) when the sample is restricted to manufacturing or wholesale trade firms or to larger small businesses. Estimates using the more parsimonious set of control variables widely available in other firm level data show large and positive effects of computer use on firm costs, sales, and profits, suggesting that controlling for managerial, firm, and owner characteristics is important.

Bitler, Marianne P., Tobias J. Moskowitz, and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen.

"Why Must Entrepreneurs Hold Large Ownership Shares? Optimal Contracting

in Private and Newly Public Firms." RAND Corporation, University of Chicago,

and NBER Working paper. Mimeographed: November 2001.

Using new data on entrepreneurial effort and net worth from privately held and newly public firms, we test the implications of agency and information contracting theory. We find that ownership shares increase with net worth and decrease with firm risk, and that effort increases with ownership, consistent with models of moral hazard. Furthermore, both ownership and effort increase firm performance after accounting for unobserved firm heterogeneity using instrumental variables. Finally, sales of shares by entrepreneurs at IPOs are negatively related to subsequent firm valuation, consistent with signaling and distinct from moral hazard. These findings highlight the importance of agency and signaling costs in explaining the large equity ownership shares of entrepreneurs.

Bitler, Marianne P., Tobias J. Moskowitz, and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen.

“Testing Agency Theory with Entrepreneur Effort and Wealth.” Journal of

Finance 60, no. 2. (April 2005): 539-576.

We develop a principal-agent model in an entrepreneurial setting and test the model's predictions using unique data on entrepreneurial effort and wealth in privately held firms. Accounting for unobserved firm heterogeneity using instrumental-variables techniques, we find that entrepreneurial ownership shares increase with outside wealth and decrease with firm risk; effort increases with ownership; and effort increases firm performance. The magnitude of the effects in the cross-section of firms suggests that agency costs may help explain why entrepreneurs concentrate large fractions of their wealth in firm equity.

Bitler, Marianne, Alicia M. Robb, and John D. Wolken. "Financial Services Used

by Small Businesses: Evidence from the 1998 Survey of Small Business

Finances." Federal Reserve Bulletin 87, no. 4 (April 2001): 183-205.

Using newly available data from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances, this article offers preliminary findings regarding the characteristics of small businesses in the United States and their use of credit and other financial services. The main goals of the survey are to provide information on credit accessibility for small businesses, their use of financial services, and the sources of those services. The survey also provides a general-purpose database that can be used to study small business financing. Preliminary findings suggest that although the financial landscape has changed markedly since the previous survey in 1993, financing patterns and the use of particular suppliers have not.
Article (122 KB PDF)

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Report to the Congress

on the Availability of Credit to Small Businesses. Board of Governors of

the Federal Reserve System. Washington, D.C., September 2002.

Section 2227 of the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 requires that, every five years, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System submit a report to the Congress detailing the extent of small business lending by all creditors. The act specifies that the study should identify factors that give policymakers insight into the small business credit market, including the demand for credit by small businesses, the availability of credit, the range of credit options available, the types of credit products used ,the credit needs of small businesses, the risks of lending to small businesses, and any other factors that the Board deems appropriate. The report relies in part on the 1998 National Survey of Small Business Finance for details on the sources and types of credit used by small businesses.

Bolton, Patrick, Xavier Freixas, and Joel Shapiro. “Conflicts of Interest,

Information Provisions, and Competition in Banking.” NBER Working Paper

No. 10571. June 2004.

In some markets, such as the market for drugs or for financial services, sellers have better information than buyers regarding the matching between the buyer’s needs and the good’s actual characteristics. Depending on the market structure, this may lead to conflicts of interest and/or the under-provision of information by the seller. This paper studies this issue in the market for financial services. The analysis presents a new model of competition between banks, as banks’ price competition influences the ensuing incentives for truthful information revelation. We compare two different firm structures, specialized banking, where financial institutions provide a unique financial product, and one-stop banking, where a financial institution is able to provide several financial products which are horizontally differentiated. We show first that, although conflicts of interest may prevent information disclosure under monopoly, competition forces full information provision for sufficiently high reputation costs . Second, in the presence of market power, one-stop banks will use information strategically to increase product differentiation and therefore will always provide reliable information and charge higher prices than specialized banks, thus providing a new reason for the creation of one-stop banks. Finally, we show that, if independent financial advisers are able to provide reliable information, this increases product differentiation and therefore market power, so that it is in the interest of financial intermediaries to promote external independent financial advice.

Burkart, Mike C., Tore Ellingsen, and Mariassunta Giannetti, "What You Sell is

What You Lend? Explaining Trade Credit Contracts" European Corporate

Governance Institute Finance Research Paper Series. November 2005.

Financial trade credit theories argue that suppliers have an advantage over other lenders in financing credit-constrained firms . While the reasons for this advantage differ across theories, they are usually related either to product characteristics or to market structure. We exploit this insight to analyze trade credit volume and contract terms. Ceteris paribus, service suppliers offer as much trade credit as suppliers of differentiated goods and significantly more than suppliers of standardized products. Moreover, service suppliers provide weaker incentives for early repayment than suppliers of standardized and differentiated products. Since services have no collateral value, but are difficult to divert, these findings suggest that the most important product characteristic for explaining trade credit contracts is the ease with which the input can be diverted. We also find that market power in input and output markets contributes to explain trade credit patterns.

Cavalluzzo, Ken and John Wolken. "Small Business Loan Turndowns, Personal

Wealth and Discrimination." Journal of Business 78, no. 6

(November 2005): 2153-2178.

Previously published in Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2002-35, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, August 2002.

We examine the impact of personal wealth on small business loan turndowns across demographic groups. Information on home ownership, home equity, and personal net worth excluding the business owner's home, in combination with a rich set of additional explanatory variables, furthers our understanding of the credit market experiences of small businesses across demographic groups. We find substantial unexplained differences in denial rates between African American-, Hispanic-, Asian-, and white-owned firms. We find that greater personal wealth is associated with a lower probability of loan denial. However, even after controlling for personal wealth, large differences in denial rates across demographic groups remain.

Cavalluzzo, Ken and Teri Yohn. “On the Voluntary Preparation and Usage of

Financial Statements.” Working paper. Mimeographed: August 2005.

We examine the factors influencing the preparation and use of financial statements by privately held firms since these firms are not required to prepare financial statements and do not face the demands of public equity markets. We show that the demand for financial statements derives from a network of markets in which the firm operates. Internal market forces, including managers’ decision making needs and owners’ needs to mitigate agency problems, and external market forces, such as the needs of outside parties contracting with the firm, create demands for financial statements. We find that firms in more complex business environments, employee-managed firms, firms contracting with debt holders, suppliers, and customers, firms with loans from owners, firms with large loans from financial institutions, firms attempting to obtain credit, and firms making purchases and sales on account are more likely to prepare financial statements. We also find that corporations with financial statements receive benefits in the form of lower costs of capital and greater access to credit.

Cetorelli, Nicola and Philip E. Strahan. “Finance as a Barrier to Entry: Bank

Competition and Industry Structure in Local U.S. Markets.” NBER Working

Paper No. 10832. October 2004.

This paper tests how competition in local U.S. banking markets affects the market structure of non-financial sectors. Theory offers competing hypotheses about how competition ought to influence firm entry and access to bank credit by mature firms. The empirical evidence, however, strongly supports the idea that in markets with concentrated banking, potential entrants face greater difficulty gaining access to credit than in markets where banking is more competitive.

Coleman, Susan. “Access to Debt Capital for Small Women- and

Minority-Owned Firms: Does Educational Attainment Have an Impact?”

Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship 9, no. 2 (August 2004): 127-144.

Due to their inability to access public debt and equity markets, small firms are heavily dependent on loans as a financing source. Prior research reveals that women and minority borrowers experience greater difficulty securing loans than white male borrowers. Previous research has also revealed a link between the educational level of the owner and firm survival and profitability. This article examines the relationship between educational attainment and the firm’s willingness and ability to secure loans with particular attention to the borrowing experience of women and minority borrowers. Results reveal that, even controlling for differences in educational level, black men were significantly less likely to be approved for their most recent loan request. Further, black men were significantly less likely to apply for loans because they assumed they would be denied.

Coleman, Susan. "The Borrowing Experience of Black and Hispanic-Owned Small

Firms: Evidence from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances." The

Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal 8, no. 1 (2002): 1-20.

Commercial bank loans are a primary source of external capital for firms that are too small to access the public debt and equity markets. Thus, the availability of credit at a reasonable cost is a key concern for small firms. This article explores the extent to which black and Hispanic-owned firms are willing to pursue commercial bank loans and the extent to which they are able to obtain them. Results reveal that, although black and Hispanic-owned firms were just as likely to apply for a loan as white-owned firms, they were significantly less likely to be approved for one. Further, black and Hispanic-owned firms were significantly more likely to avoid applying for loans because they believed they would be denied. These findings did not reveal any differences in the interest rates charged on approved loans to black, Hispanic, or white-owned firms.

Coleman, Susan. "Borrowing Patterns for Small Firms: A Comparison by Race

and Ethnicity." The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance & Business Ventures

7, no. 3 (2003): 87-108.

This article explores the use of debt capital by small firms using data from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances. An examination of the data reveals differences in the characteristics and borrowing experience of small firms by race and ethnicity. Results indicate that although minority firm owners were just as likely to apply for loans, they were significantly less likely to be approved for them. Further, black small business owners were less likely to even bother applying for a loan, because they assumed they would be denied. These findings have implications for the ability of minority small business owners to grow their firms and contribute to the economic well-being of their communities.

Coleman, Susan. "Characteristics and Borrowing Behavior of Small,

Women-Owned Firms: Evidence from the 1998 Survey of Small Business

Finances." The Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship 14, no. 2

(2002): 151-166.

Recently released data from the 1998 Survey of Business Finances reveals that commercial banks continue to be the dominant source of loans for both women- and men-owned small firms. Controlling for other variables, women were less likely than men to have applied for a loan within the previous three years. They were no less likely to be approved, however, if they did apply. These findings suggest that previously noted differences between women and men in terms of access to debt capital may have been largely eliminated. These findings do indicate, however that black- and Hispanic-owned firms were less likely to be approved for their most recent loan application than non-minority firms.

Coleman, Susan. “Computer Use in Small U.S. Firms: Is there a Digital Divide?”

Journal of Small Business Strategy 15, no. 2 (2005): 91-103.

This article uses data from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances to explore the use of computers and the Internet by small firms. Results reveal that firms owned by black men and firms owned by Asian men were significantly less likely to use computers for business purposes than firms owned by white men. There were no significant differences between firms owned by white men and those owned by white women or by Hispanic men. Other significant predictors of computer use included measures of firm size, firm age, organizational status, owner age, and the educational level of the owner.

Coleman, Susan. "Free and Costly Trade Credit: A Comparison of Small Firms."

2003. Paper presented at the Academy of Entrepreneurial Finance 14th

International Conference, April 30th - May 2nd. Chicago, Illinois.

Trade credit is a major source of financing for small firms. This article examines the extent to which small firms use trade credit as well as the extent to which they use "free" versus "costly" trade credit. Those firms that use free trade credit make payment within the discount period. Alternatively, firms that use costly trade credit forego available discounts and may also make payment after the due date thereby incurring substantial additional costs. Results reveal that larger firms were more likely to use trade credit. Younger firms were more likely to be denied trade credit and were also more likely to pay late as were firms with a history of credit difficulties and those with high levels of debt. Firms owned by white women, black men, and Hispanic men were significantly less likely to have trade credit than firms owned by white men. Further, firms owned by black men were significantly more likely to be denied trade credit.

Coleman, Susan. “Is there a Liquidity Crisis for Small Black-Owned Firms?”

Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship 10, no. 1 (April 2005): 29-47.

Loans and trade credit are major sources of short-term debt and liquidity for small firms. This article uses data from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances to compare the borrowing experience of small firms owned by black men to those owned by white men. Results reveal that black firm owners were more dependent on loans from non-bank sources than white owners. Black men were significantly more likely to have been turned down for their most recent loan and were more likely to be turned down for trade credit. Overall, these findings seem to suggest that firms owned by black men have a more difficult time securing sources of short term debt than those owned by white men.

Coleman, Susan. “The ‘Liability of Newness’ and Small Firm Access to Debt

Capital: Is There a Link?” Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance and Business

Ventures 9, no. 2 (2004): 37-60.

Literature pertaining to the “liability of newness” contends that newer firms face particular difficulties and a greater risk of failure. This article seeks to determine if “newness” is also a disadvantage in the acquisition of debt capital. Results indicate that newer firms were significantly less likely to have lines of credit and were also significantly more likely to have been turned down for their most recent loan. Even when we control for length of relationship with the primary financial services provider, personal guarantees, and collateral, younger firms were still more likely to be turned down for loans.

Coleman, Susan. “The Role of Owner Education and Experience in Small Firm

Access to Bank Loans: Is there a link?” Journal of Business and

Entrepreneurship 16, no. 1 (January 2004): 1-16.

Prior research has revealed a link between human capital variables, specifically the educational level and prior experience of firm owners, and small firm survival and performance .This article examines the link between these same human capital variables and the ability of small firms to secure bank loans. Results indicate that firms with more highly educated owners were significantly more likely to have their most recent loan approved by a bank. Findings pertaining to the impact of prior owner experience were less conclusive, however.

Craig, Steven G. and Pauline Hardee. “The Impact of Bank Consolidation

on Small Business Credit Availability.” Small Business Administration Office

of Advocacy. February 2004.

This paper examines how banking consolidation has affected small businesses credit. Using the Survey of Small Business Finances, the empirical model examines how credit supply to small firms responds to larger banks, and whether the non-bank supply of credit has offset decreases in credit from banks. Using an empirical model to correct for sample selection, large banks are found to lower the probability of obtaining credit for small businesses, and this lower probability is not offset by increased total loans. Bank credit access reductions are primarily found in firms with negative equity. Non-bank institutions are found to make up much, but not all, of the decrease.

Folta, Timothy B., Jonathan P. O'Brien, and Douglas R. Johnson. "A real options

perspective on entrepreneurial entry in the face of uncertainty." Managerial

and Decision Economics 24, no. 8 (November 2003): 515 - 533.

In this paper we develop and test theory regarding whether entrepreneurs contemplating starting a new venture account for the value of the option to defer the entry decision. While others have illuminated the theoretical applicability of real options theory to entrepreneurship, empirical evidence in this context is lacking. Consistent with predictions derived from real options theory, we find that high uncertainty in the target industry dissuades entry, and that the irreversibility of the entry decision moderates this relationship. Furthermore, we find that the irreversibility of the investment decision can be influenced by industry-level, firm-level and even individual-level factors.

Guiso, Luigi and Raoul Minetti. "Multiple Creditors and Information Rights:

Theory and Evidence from U.S. Firms." University of Sassari and Michigan

State University. Mimeographed: August 2003.

We analyze how a firm allocates information rights across its multiple banks. By differentiating their information, a firm prevents its banks from continuing projects only to use their superior information and seize assets during the reorganization. However, informational diversity can lead to the premature liquidation of good projects. We derive the optimal allocation of information as a function of the redeployability and the heterogeneity of the assets of the firm, and of the costs of restructuring the firm in distress. Using a sample of U.S. firms, we find evidence that supports the empirical predictions of the model.

Gustafson, Cole R. “Rural Small Business Finance: Evidence from the 1998 Survey

of Small Business Finances.” Agricultural Finance Review 64, no. 1

(Spring 2004): 33-43.

The 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances provides robust information on the financing of small businesses, including an overview of the firms’ organization, financial characteristics, and credit use. Information from the survey is used in this study to compare the financial characteristics of metro and rural small businesses. While many financial characteristics are similar, rural small businesses do own more land and depreciable assets, and have lower inventory and other current assets when compared to metro firms. Rural firms have relatively similar access to technology and financial services, although utilization varies. Both metro and rural small businesses rely on a wide variety of sources for financing; however, rural small businesses have significantly more mortgages, loans from shareholders, and other types of loans, but fewer credit cards . Use of nonparametric rank order statistical methods was required because normality assumptions were violated due to asymmetric distribution of small firms.

Haggerty, Catherine, Karen Grigorian, Rachael Harter, and John Wolken. "The

1998 Survey of Small Business Finances: Sampling and Level of Effort

Associated with Gaining Cooperation from Minority-Owned Business."

Presented at the International Conference on Establishment Surveys II,

June 17-21, 2000, Buffalo, NY.

The 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances is the third survey in a series that collects financial data from businesses with fewer than 500 employees. The intent of the survey is to understand how small businesses finance themselves, what sort of access to credit they have, and the impacts of changes in financial organizations on access to credit for small businesses, particularly those that are minority owned.

Publicly available business lists generally do not include information on the race and ethnicity of business owners. When this information is available, generally it is available for only a small subsample of firms on the list and may be of questionable quality. In order to overcome this limitation for the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances, a large sample of business firms selected from Dun & Bradstreet's business listings was first screened to identify minority ownership. After screening, a smaller second stage sample, stratified by minority ownership, was selected. In this paper we compare our minority classification results with the minority information available in the Dun & Bradstreet data and with our expectations from the Census Survey of Minority-Owned Business Enterprises.

This paper also examines the level of effort associated with collecting data from comparable firms across different strata.
Article (122 KB PDF)

Haynes, George W. “Finance Companies and Small Business Borrowers: Evidence

from the 1993 and 1998 Surveys of Small Business Finances.” U.S. Small

Business Administration Office of Advocacy. April 2005.

Finance companies play an important role in providing short- and medium-term financial capital to small business borrowers. They are the most important institutional providers of capital to small businesses after banks. This study examines whether finance companies’ importance in providing financial capital to small business borrowers changed during the 1990s. This is interesting because the 1990s were a decade of rapid growth in financial markets, including expansion in interstate banking and lending by both finance companies and commercial banks. This study uses the most recent data on small business finances to evaluate the importance of finance companies to small business borrowers in 1993 and 1998; to assess what types of borrowers were attracted to finance companies; and to determine if these finance company borrowers paid higher loan prices. The analysis of the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances (SSBF) confirmed the importance of finance companies as the second most important institutional supplier of credit to small business borrowers—they remained important providers of credit for vehicle loans, equipment loans, and lease financing. While on the surface, small business borrowers were more likely to utilize finance companies for traditional loans in 1998 than 1993, this result held only for capital leases and mortgage loans, which were not major sources of financing to small firms . Small business’ use of the major products marketed by finance companies—vehicle and equipment loans—remained important but unchanged during 1993 and 1998. In addition, this study suggests that small businesses- relationships with finance companies remained virtually unchanged from 1993 to 1998; finance companies continued to attract good quality clients with low credit risk, similar to those who utilized commercial banks.

Helwege, Jean and Frank Packer. "The Decision to Go Public: Evidence from

Mandatory SEC Filings of Private Firms." Fisher College of Business

Working Paper. Ohio State University April 2003.

Formerly: "The Decision to Go Public: Evidence from Corporate Bond Issuers."

We investigate a sample of private firms to determine whether they are likely to go public. While most private firms' data are not available, we take advantage of the fact that some firms are required to file with the SEC. Our sample firms are typically large and highly leveraged. Although we see some evidence of a debt overhang problem that inhibits firms from going public, our results also indicate that high leverage reflects managers' desire to avoid outside equity. Of the firms in the sample that do issue outside equity (to private equity specialists), there is a greater likelihood of attempting an IPO. This result is consistent with Black and Gilson's (1998) view of the stock market as an exit strategy.

Korkeamaki, Timo, Chao Qin and Matthew W. Rutherford. "An Examination of

Small Firm Capital Decisions." Gonzaga University. Mimeographed: January

2004.

This work examines the nature of capital structure decisions in the small firm. In accordance with previous empirical studies that use samples of large firms, we find support for both the pecking order theory and the static trade-off theory. First, our results indicate some tendency among small businesses to set their capital structures at levels similar to larger companies in their industries. We find a positive correlation between small business leverage and leverage of publicly traded firms within same industry, which finding we view as support of the static trade-off theory. Second, in support of the pecking order theory, we find a higher tendency among firms that were denied debt financing to use equity financing. When testing between the two theories, we provide support for the pecking order theory, as we find that the choice between equity and debt financing is driven mostly by the firm's ability to acquire debt financing, the industry mean capital structure being only a secondary benchmark.

Lel, Ugur and Gregory F. Udell. "Financial Constraints, Start-up Firms and

Personal Commitments." Kelley School of Business Working Paper. Indiana

University. October 2002.

Start-up firms likely face significant funding constraints that affect their access to and cost of external finance. In this paper we test for the first time theoretical models that suggest that personal commitments may mitigate information problems that give rise to funding constraints. We find that the use of personal commitments in the form of personal guarantees and outside collateral increases access to external financing. This suggests that funding constraints are significant in start-up firms and that personal commitments offer an important solution. We also conduct a number of other tests which also suggest that funding constraints affect the behavior of start-up firms and an entrepreneur's choice of whether to start a firm.

Mitchell, Karlyn and Douglas K. Pearce. “Availability of Financing to Small

Firms Using the Survey of Small Business Finances.” U.S. Small Business

Administration Office of Advocacy. May 2005.

The small business sector is of interest to policymakers not only because of the important role it plays in the U.S. economy, but also because of the avenue to advancement small business ownership represents, in particular for ethnic minorities and women. Critical to small businesses’ success is the availability of financing for both capital acquisition and working capital purposes. Much of this financing takes the form of credit extended by commercial banks and nonbank lenders. This study investigates possible restricted access to credit for minority- and women-owned businesses by focusing on two types of credit--“relationship loans” (lines of credit) and “transaction loans” (commercial mortgages, motor vehicle loans, capital leases, and other loans)—from two types of creditors: commercial banks and nonbank lenders. The disaggregated approach is feasible because of a rich new data set, the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances. The results imply that minority small business owners face some restrictions in access to credit. These restrictions do not appear to be uniform across loan or lender type. By disaggregating outstanding loans by loan type and lender type, the research finds that ethnic minority firm owners are more likely to have transaction loans from nonbanks and less likely to have bank loans of any kind. Consistent with past studies researchers found that African-American and Hispanic firm owners face significantly greater loan denial probabilities than white male firm owners on both relationship bank loans and transaction bank loans. New evidence in this study hints that discrimination may be specific to particular segments of the loan market rather than a general problem. Researchers found that lenders do not artificially restrict the credit-market access of female and Asian firm owners. This study breaks new ground by suggesting that preferential lending practices characterize the granting of transaction loans to a significantly greater degree than the granting of relationship loans.

Mitchell, Karlyn and Douglas K. Pearce. “Discrimination, Competition, and

Relationship vs. Transaction Lending to Small Businesses: Evidence from the

1998 Survey of Small Business Finances.” Presented at the Financial

Management Association annual meeting October 12-15, 2005, Chicago, IL.

We investigate discrimination by lenders against minority and female small-business owners using the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances. Unlike past researchers we distinguish between transaction and relationship loans, and hypothesize that lenders making these loans differ in their tendency to discriminate . We estimate probit models of the probability of having an existing loan and being denied a new loan, and use the estimated models to test for evidence fo discrimination . Consistent with our hypothesis, we find stronger evidence of discrimination in transaction lending than relationship lending. Because discrimination against African-Americans and Hispanics in transaction lending appears to be invariant to the degree of banking market competition, we conclude this discrimination is statistical.

Mitchell, Karlyn and Douglas K. Pearce. “Which Loans Are Relationship Loans?

Evidence from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances” The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

and Business Ventures 9, no. 2. (October 2004), 1-36.

Also presented at the Financial Management Association annual meeting October 12-15, 2005, Chicago, IL.

We seek to identify which small business loans are relationship loans: only line-of-credit loans or a larger class of loans. We model the probability that a lender will deny a firm’s loan application and design tests to adduce whether lenders use different criteria to deny applications for line-of-credit and non-line-of-credit loans. We estimate our model on a data sample drawn from the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances. Our results show few differences in lending criteria, leading us to conclude that all small business loans are relationship loans. Our results also support the view that increasing loan market competition decreases the probability of loan denial for relationship loans.

Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration.

"Financing Patterns of Small Firms: Findings from the 1998 Survey of Small

Business Finance." Office of Advocacy. Washington, D.C., 2003.

This report presents a statistical report on the financing patterns of small firms using the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances. It also provides a brief review of the financing patterns of all small firms, small minority-owned firms, and women-owned firms. The study found that financing patterns do differ by firm size and for different groups of small firms. It was found that very small firms relied less on financing by financial institutions and more on sources from non-traditional sources such as owners' loan and the use of personal credit cards. Minority and women-owned firms were also found to have used more of certain sources of financing as compared with all small business in general. Whether these observed differences in the financing patterns can be attributed to the reduced availability of certain types of credit from certain groups of suppliers is, however, difficult to ascertain because of hte complexity of the determinants of the demand and the supply of credit to small firms. Further research on these issues utilizing the detailed information collected in the survey along with a more elaborate econometric analysis is certainly warranted.
Article (1 MB PDF)

Ou, Charles and George W. Haynes. "Uses of Equity Capital by Small Firms –

Findings from the Surveys of Small Business Finances (for 1993 & 1998)." 2003.

Paper presented at the Academy of Entrepreneurial Finance 14th International

Conference, April 30th - May 2nd. Chicago, Illinois

While the importance of venture capital to the growth of small firms has been widely discussed during the past decade, little is known about the uses of equity capital, especially internal equity capital, by the majority of small firms in the United States. Information from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Small Business Finances provides a rare opportunity to examine this important issue.

This paper utilizes the information collected in the 1993 and 1998 Small Business Finances surveys to investigate the uses of equity capital by small firms. We found that while the importance of new issue markets (IPOs) and the role of venture capital investment in promoting the growth of small dynamic firms cannot be denied, the importance of external equity capital in promoting the formation and the growth of small firms seems to be overstated. Only a very small number of small firms used external equity. In fact, the information on the uses of venture capital (equity capital from external sources) from the national surveys is too limited to permit a statistical analysis of the factors determining their uses by small firms. It is the internal equity capital, not external equity, that is one of the major financing sources for most of small firms in these surveys. A majority of small firms relied on internal sources of capital (owner's capital, owner's loans, and retained earnings) and external borrowing from financial institutions to finance their business operation and growth. There appeared to be a "pecking order" of borrowing from financial sources from internal sources to financial institutions to non-financial lenders. In addition, internal equity and commercial bank loans appeared to be complementary financial resources.

Robb, Alicia. "Small Business Financing: Differences Between Young and

Old Firms." Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance and Business Ventures,

(November 2002).

Financial capital is necessary not only for business formation but also for business survival and expansion: its role is well documented in the literature. While venture capital and IPOs often make the popular press, the fact is most firms are unable to tap into this market. Instead, they depend on owner equity, other private equity, and debt financing. Survey data from the Federal Reserve Board allow an in depth look at the patterns of small business financing in the late nineties. Evidence suggests that debt financing for small businesses was extremely important, especially for young firms.

Robb, Alicia and John Wolken. "Firm, Owner, and Financing Characteristics:

Differences between Female- and Male-owned Small Businesses." Finance and

Economics Discussion Series 2002-18, Board of Governors of the Federal

Reserve System, March 2002.

Differences in financing patterns and financial characteristics between female- and male-owned firms are often attributed to imperfections in credit markets. However, these differences could arise for many reasons, such as differences in the characteristics and preferences of owners and firms. The differences in lending patterns by gender may in fact have little or nothing to do with supply side factors or market imperfections. The goal of our paper is to test the hypothesis that differences in financing patterns between female- and male-owned small businesses can be explained by differences in business, credit history, and owner characteristics other than gender. In what follows, we first describe how owner, business, and financing characteristics of female-owned businesses differ from male-owned businesses. We then conduct a multivariate analysis of indicators of credit use and recent lending experiences, modeling each of these as a function of firm, owner, and credit history characteristics.
Article (88 KB PDF)

Vickery, James. “(How and why) Do Small Firms Manage Interest Rate Risk?

Evidence from Commercial Loans.” Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Mimeographed: May 2005.

Although small firms are most sensitive to interest rates and other shocks, empirical work on corporate risk management has focused instead on large public companies. This paper studies fixed rate and adjustable rate loans to see how small firms manage their exposure to interest rate risk. Credit constrained firms are found to match significantly more often with fixed rate loans, minimizing their exposure to rising interest rates. Firms adjust their exposure depending on how interest rate shocks covary with industry output. Lender characteristics also matter. In a 28-year time-series the share of fixed rate loans moves with interest rates consistent with recent evidence on debt market timing. I conclude the ‘fixed versus adjustable’ dimension of financial contracting helps small US firms ameliorate interest rate risk, and discuss implications for risk management theories and the credit channel of monetary policy.

Watanabe, Wako. "Availability of Firms' Information and their Choice of

External Credit: Evidence from the Data of Small Firms." Princeton

University. Mimeographed: November 2003.

The main purpose of this paper is to present the empirical findings derived from the data of small firms that the availability of private and public information on the borrowing firm leads to diverse borrowing patterns among firms. We explore the probabilistic logit models to characterize the firm's choice of a financial source from the following: no external credit, trade credit, institutional (bank) lending, and the mix of trade credit and institutional lending We find that firms whose information is poorly recorded, or who are publicly less recognized, are more likely to choose institutional lending over trade credit but as the recorded information becomes more organized and firms become more transparent, they tend to graduate to a greater use of trade credit.

1993 NSSBF

Aaronson, Daniel, Raphael W. Bostic, Paul Huck, and Robert Townsend. "Supplier

Relationships and Small Business Use of Trade Credit." Journal of Urban

Economics 55, no. 1 (January 2004): 46-67.

This paper establishes some unique descriptive statistics about supplier relationships and the use of trade credit among minority small businesses and documents the importance that ethnic and geographic supplier ties play. Using data from a survey of small businesses in two Chicago neighborhoods, we find that the importance may differ across communities. Working with a nearby supplier and, in cases where language appears to be an issue, with a Hispanic supplier are associated with more credit for Hispanic-owned firms. However, no comparable relationships are observed for Black-owned firms. These patterns are generally confirmed using nationally representative data. In addition, the national data suggest that ethnic differences in trade credit outcomes can be partly accounted for by the presence of ethnic- and geographic-based supplier relationships.

Ang, James S., Rebel A. Cole, and James Wuh Lin. "Agency Costs and Ownership

Structure." Journal of Finance 55, no. 1 (February 2000): 81-106.

We provide measures of absolute and relative agency costs for corporations under different ownership and management structures. Our base case is Jensen and Meckling's (1976) zero agency-cost firm, where the manager is the firm's sole shareholder. We utilize a sample of 1,708 small corporations from the NSSBF database and find that agency costs (i) are significantly higher when an outsider rather than an insider manages the firm; (ii) are inversely related to the manager's ownership share; (iii) increase with the number of nonmanagers, shareholders, and (iv) to a lesser extent, are lower with greater monitoring by banks.

Avery, Robert B., Raphael W. Bostic, and Katherine A. Samolyk. "The Role

of Personal Wealth in Small Business Finance." Journal of Banking and

Finance 22, nos. 6-8 (August 1998): 1019-61.

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the relationship between personal commitments and the allocation of small business credit. The data suggest that personal commitments are important for firms seeking certain types of loans. Guarantees are more prevalent than collateral and organization type (corporate versus noncorporate status) appears to be particularly important in determining commitment use. No systematic relationship is observed between commitment use and owner wealth. Personal commitments appear to be substitutes for business collateral, at least for lines of credit, while personal collateral and personal guarantees do not seem to substitute for each other. Personal commitments have generally become more important to small business lending since the late 1980's.

Ayers, Benjamin C., Bryan C. Cloyd, and John R. Robinson. "The Influence

of Income Taxes on the Use of Inside and Outside Debt by Small Businesses."

National Tax Journal 54, no. 1 (March 2001): 27-55.

We investigate the effect of taxes on the utilization of inside debt (loans from owners) and outside debt (loans from nonowners) across small businesses organized as taxable corporations and flow-through entities (Subchapter S corporations and partnerships). We find that the tax incentives to use debt differ according to the type of debt and the type of entity. Our results indicate that the effect of marginal tax rates on the use of outside debt and other non-debt tax shields is similar for both taxable and flow-through entities. In contrast, we find that marginal tax rates are unrelated to the use of inside debt by flow-through entities.

Berger, Allen N., Nathan H. Miller, Raghuram G. Rajan, Jeremy C. Stein, and

Mitchell A. Petersen. "Does Function Follow Organizational Form? Evidence

From the Lending Practices of Large and Small Banks." Board of Governors

of the Federal Reserve System, University of California, Berkeley,

Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and Harvard University

working paper. Mimeographed: November 2003.

Also in NBER Working Paper Series No. w8752. January 2002.

Theories based on incomplete contracting suggest that small organizations may do better than large organizations in activities that require the processing of soft information. We explore this idea in the context of bank lending to small firms, an activity that is typically thought of as relying heavily on soft information. We find that large banks are less willing than small banks to lend to informationally "difficult" credits, such as firms that do not keep formal financial records. Moreover, controlling for the endogeneity of bank-firm matching, large banks lend at a greater distance, interact more impersonally with their borrowers, have shorter and less exclusive relationships, and do not alleviate credit constraints as effectively. All of this is consistent with small banks being better able to collect and act on soft information than large banks.

Berger, Allen N., Richard J. Rosen, and Gregory F. Udell. "The Effect of

Market Size Structure on Competition: The Case of Small Business Lending."

Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2001-63, Board of Governors

of the Federal Reserve System, 2001.

Banking industry consolidation has raised concern about the supply of small business credit since large banks generally invest lower proportions of their assets in small business loans. However, we find that the likelihood that a small business borrows from a bank of a given size is roughly proportional to the local market presence of banks of that size, although there are exceptions. Moreover, small business loan interest rates depend more on the size structure of the market than on the size of the bank providing the credit, with markets dominated by large banks generally charging lower prices.

Berger, Allen N. and Gregory F. Udell. "The Economics of Small Business

Finance: The Roles of Private Equity and Debt Markets in the Financial

Growth Cycle." Journal of Banking and Finance 22, nos. 6-8

(August 1998): 613-73.

Also in Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1998-15, Board of Governors

of the Federal Reserve System, 1998.

This article examines the economics of financing small business in private equity and debt markets. Firms are viewed through a financial growth cycle paradigm in which different capital structures are optimal at different points in the cycle. The article shows the sources of small business finance, and how capital structure varies with firm size and age. The interconnectedness of small firm finance is discussed along with the impact of the macroeconomic environment. Also includes an analysis of a number of research policy issues, reviews the literature, and suggests topics for future research.

Berger, Allen N. and Gregory F. Udell. "Small Business Credit Availability

and Relationship Lending: The Importance of Bank Organisational

Structure." Economic Journal 112, no. 477 (February 2002): F32-53.

This paper models the inner workings of relationship lending, the implications for bank organisational structure, and the effects of shocks to the economic environment on the availability of relationship credit to small businesses. Relationship lending depends on the accumulation over time by the loan officer of ‘soft' information. Because the loan officer is the repository of this soft information, agency problems are created throughout the organisation that may best be resolved by structuring the bank as a small, closely-held organisation with few managerial layers. The shocks analysed include technological innovations, regulatory regime shifts, banking industry consolidation, and monetary policy shocks.

Berkowitz, Jeremy and Michelle J. White. "Bankruptcy and Small Firms'

Access to Credit." NBER Working Paper Series No. w9010.

Also RAND Journal of Economics, Spring 2004, forthcoming.

In this paper, we investigate whether and how personal bankruptcy law affects small firms' access to credit. When a firm is unincorporated, its debts are personal liabilities of the firm's owner, so that lending to the firm is equivalent to lending to its owner. If the firm fails, the owner has an incentive to file for personal bankruptcy in order to obtain discharge of the firm's debts. While bankruptcy law is uniform across the country, states are allowed to set their own bankruptcy exemption levels and they vary widely. The higher the exemption level, the more attractive it is for debtors who live in that state to file for bankruptcy, because they can keep more of their assets while obtaining discharge of their own and the firm's debts.

The paper presents a theoretical model of credit markets which shows that supply of credit falls and demand for credit rises when non-corporate firms are located in states with higher bankruptcy exemption levels. We test the model using the NSSBF and find that high homestead and personal property exemptions are associated with an increased probability of non-corporate firms being denied credit, but do not affect the probability of corporate firms being denied credit. We also find weak evidence that both types of firms receive smaller loans when they are located in states that have high bankruptcy exemptions, but we find no evidence that interest rates are affected by bankruptcy exemptions. We also test for the effect of a prior bankruptcy filing by non-corporate firms or their owners on access to credit and find that a prior filing nearly triples the probability that these firms are denied credit.

Bernstein, David. "Fringe Benefits and Small Businesses: Evidence from the

Federal Reserve Board Small Business Survey." Office of Economic Policy,

U.S. Treasury. Mimeographed: 2001.

Also in Applied Economics 34, no. 16 (November 10, 2002): 2063-2067.

Data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Businesses (NSSBF) is used to analyze the factors affecting the provision of pensions and health insurance by small businesses. The race of the business owner is found to impact the provision of tax advantaged fringe benefits, even after accounting for a wide range of other economic and demographic variables. It is not possible to determine why owner race impacts the provision of fringe benefits by small businesses but the significance of the race variable might reflect a l ower level of marketing effort by financial service firms in minority-dominated communities. The owner education variable, which is also significant in both the pension and health insurance models, could also be a proxy for the availability of general information about the importance of fringe benefits. With the exception of the sole proprietorship variable, the demographic and economic variables appear to have similar effects on the provision of both pensions and health insurance by small businesses. Some sole proprietors appear to prefer pension benefits to health insurance benefits possibly because pensions allow the business owner to shield some assets in the case of bankruptcy.

Bitler, Marianne P., Tobias J. Moskowitz, and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen.

"Why Must Entrepreneurs Hold Large Ownership Shares? Optimal

Contracting in Private and Newly Public Firms." RAND Corporation,

University of Chicago, and NBER Working paper. Mimeographed: November

2001.

Using new data on entrepreneurial effort and net worth from privately held and newly public firms, we test the implications of agency and information contracting theory. We find that ownership shares increase with net worth and decrease with firm risk, and that effort increases with ownership, consistent with models of moral hazard. Furthermore, both ownership and effort increase firm performance after accounting for unobserved firm heterogeneity using instrumental variables. Finally, sales of shares by entrepreneurs at IPOs are negatively related to subsequent firm valuation, consistent with signaling and distinct from moral hazard. These findings highlight the importance of agency and signaling costs in explaining the large equity ownership shares of entrepreneurs.

Bitler, Marianne P., Tobias J. Moskowitz, and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen.

“Testing Agency Theory with Entrepreneur Effort and Wealth.” Journal of

Finance 60, no. 2. (April 2005): 539-576.

We develop a principal-agent model in an entrepreneurial setting and test the model's predictions using unique data on entrepreneurial effort and wealth in privately held firms. Accounting for unobserved firm heterogeneity using instrumental-variables techniques, we find that entrepreneurial ownership shares increase with outside wealth and decrease with firm risk; effort increases with ownership; and effort increases firm performance. The magnitude of the effects in the cross-section of firms suggests that agency costs may help explain why entrepreneurs concentrate large fractions of their wealth in firm equity.

Blanchflower, David G., Phillip B. Levine, and David J. Zimmerman. 1999.

"Discrimination in the Small Business Credit Market." Review of Economics

and Statistics 84, no. 4 (November 2003): 930-943.

Also presented at Federal Reserve System Research Conference: Business

Access to Capital and Credit, March 8-9, 1999 at Sheraton National Hotel,

Arlington, Virginia.

Also in NBER Working Paper Series No. w6840. December 1998.

This paper uses data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances to determine the extent to which minority-owned small businesses face constraints in the credit market beyond those faced by white-owned small businesses. First, qualitative evidence is presented indicating that black- and white-owned firms report similar concerns about the factors that may affect their businesses except that blacks are far more likely to report problems with credit availability. Second, an econometric analysis of loan denial probabilities is conducted by race and it is found that black-owned small businesses are almost three times more likely to have a loan application denied. Even after controlling for the differences in credit-worthiness and other factors that exist between black- and white-owned firms, blacks are still about twice as likely to be denied credit. A series of specification checks indicate that this gap is unlikely to be largely attributed to omitted variable bias. Third, a similar analysis is conducted regarding interest rates charged to approved loans and it is found that black-owned firms pay higher interest rates as well. Finally, even these results are likely to understate differences in credit access because many potential black-owned firms are not in operation due to the lack of credit and those in business may be too afraid to apply. These results indicate that the racial disparity in credit availability is likely caused by discrimination.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Report to the Congress on Small

Business Credit Availability. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

System. Washington, D.C.,October 1997.

Section 2227 of the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 requires the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to conduct a study and report every five years to Congress detailing the extent of small business lending by all creditors. The act specifies that the study should identify factors that provide policymakers with insight into the small business credit market, including, among other items, the demand for credit by small businesses, the availability of credit, and risks of lending to small businesses. The report relies in part on the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finance for details on the sources and types of credit used by small businesses. The survey also provides information on the borrowing experiences of small businesses in 1993. Topics include the variations of the types of financial arrangements and sources of credit used by small firms by organizational form, industry, size, and other characteristics of the business, the importance of the relationship between lenders and small business customers in determining the terms and availability of credit, the implications for bank lending to small businesses (credit scoring and securitization of small business loans, and consolidation within the banking industry), whether mergers and consolidation within the banking industry produce more large banking organizations while reducing the number of small banks that are important lenders to small businesses in their localities, and a brief discussion of a noncredit source of finance for small firms--the private equity market.

Bostic, Raphael W. 1999. "Trends in Equal Access to Credit Products."

Paper presented at the Credit Research Center 25th Anniversary Conference,

November 3-4. Alexandria, Virginia.

Concerns about equal access to credit in the United States have been longstanding. For the past several decades, many have argued that certain populations – primarily ethnic minorities, low-income households, and those residing in neighborhoods with large numbers of ethnic minorities or low-income households – have not had the same access to credit products as others. This, they argue, has impeded the ability of these populations and communities to maintain and improve their economic condition.

The objective of this paper is to provide insight into how access to credit has changed for members of different populations and how relative access to credit has also changed. In examining these questions, the focus will be on several credit products – mortgages, consumer loans and small business loans. The period of analysis will be the early 1990s, a period which was marked by a significant economic expansion, major changes in the banking services industry, and increased vigilance regarding the enforcement of CRA and other fair lending laws.

The results suggest that absolute access to credit products has increased generally and for all subgroups in the population. Moreover, relative access to credit products appears to have improved for minority households and small businesses, as increases in absolute access to first mortgages, home ownership and credit cards was larger for minority households than for comparable white households. Similarly, lower-income households appear to have realized improved relative access to first mortgages and credit cards. This was not observed for home ownership, as relative access to home ownership declined for households in the lowest quintile.

Bostic, Raphael W. and K. Patrick Lampani. 1999. "Race, Geography, Risk,

and Market Structure: Examining Discrimination in Small Business Finance."

Paper presented at Federal Reserve System Research Conference: Business

Access to Capital and Credit, March 8-9, at Sheraton National Hotel,

Arlington, Virginia.

This paper attempts to identify and quantify differences in credit market experiences of small businesses with owners of different races and examine possible sources of these differences using the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances (NSSBF) along with detailed demographic and economic data on the local area where the business is located. Our analysis finds no statistically significant differences in denial rates between white-owned firms and firms owned by Asians, or Hispanics. The only racial disparity that is statistically significant is the difference in denial rates between white-owned and Black-owned firms. The results show that controlling for a variety of financial and economic characteristics of the firm, owners, and local market explains much of the Black-white differences. Importantly, our results show that controlling for variation in a firm's local geographic market is often important in explaining differences in their credit market experiences.

Brau, James C. 2002. "Do Banks Price Owner-Manager Agency Costs?

An Examination of Small Business Borrowing." Journal of Small Business

Management 40, no. 4 (October 2002): 273-286.

Ang, Cole, and Lin (2000) provide evidence that supports the theoretical work of Jensen and Meckling (1976) on agency costs. As a further examination, I conduct a test to determine the economic significance of owner-management agency conflicts. Using the same data source and empirical framework as Ang, Cole, and Lin (2000), I test to determine if banks change a premium when extending loans to firms with various ownership structures. In empirical tests, I find that banks do not require an owner-manager agency premium either through increased interest rates or through the requirement of collateral. Instead, I find that the interest rate is significantly affected by the length of the longest banking relationship, the number of banking relationships, firm age, and firm size. Additionally, the requirement of collateral is significantly affected by the number of banking relationships, the debt position of the firm, and firm size.

Cavalluzzo, Ken, Linda Cavalluzzo, and John D. Wolken. "Competition,

Small Business Financing, and Discrimination: Evidence From a New Survey."

Paper presented at Federal Reserve System Research Conference: Business

Access to Capital and Credit, March 8-9, at Sheraton National Hotel,

Arlington, Virginia.

Also in Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1999-25, Board of

Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1999.

Also in Journal of Business 75, no. 4 (2002): 641-79.

Using data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances, we examine some of the factors influencing differences in small business credit market experiences across demographic groups. We analyze credit applications, loan denials, and interest rates paid across gender, race and ethnicity of small business owners. In addition, we analyze data gathered from small business owners who said they did not apply for credit because they believed that their application would have been turned down. This set of analysis, in combination with important new information on the personal credit history of the principal owner, the business credit history of the firm, a rich set of additional explanatory variables, and information on local bank market structure, helps us to understand better the sources of observed differentials in the credit market experiences of small business operators across demographic groups.

Credit market experiences often differ markedly among demographic groups. However, so do the characteristics of firms and owners. Results of our multivariate analyses show that many of the factors we consider help to explain the observed differences in credit market experiences. However, even after controlling for a large number of firm and owner characteristics, substantial differences often remained. There was also evidence that some of the differentials were associated with the degree of lender market concentration in the firm's local area.

Cavalluzzo, Ken S. and Christopher Geczy. "The Choice of Organizational Form:

Taxes, Liability, Agency, and Financing." Georgetown University and

University of Pennsylvania. Mimeographed: July 23, 2002.

We investigate tax liability, agency and financing factors influencing a firm's choice of organizational form. Taking into account the endogenous nature of the decision, our evidence indicates that not only are tax-related influences important, but also that liability, agency, financing, owner sophistication, and industry-related factors are associated with a firm's choice of being a proprietorship, partnership, S-corporation or C-corporation. Furthermore, controlling for these motivations, we find that corporations (both S- and closed C-corporations) realize considerable financing benefits in the form of lower costs of capital relative to sole proprietorships and partnerships.

Cavalluzzo, Ken S. and Srinivasan Sankaraguruswamy. "Executive Compensation

in Privately Held Small Corporations." Georgetown University.

Mimeographed: July 2003.

We investigate some of the factors influencing executive compensation in privately held small corporations. Consistent with predictions from agency theory, as ownership becomes more diffuse, the association between compensation and accounting performance increases. Additional analysis indicates that this result is driven by the behavior of employee-managed and non-family-owned businesses. We also find that C-corporations, and in particular owner managers of C-corporations, have a higher level of compensation, while owner-managed firms with loans from their owners have lower compensation. These latter results are consistent with owner managers using compensation to avoid taxes. Taken together, our results suggest that both tax and agency issues play important roles in determining executive compensation among privately owned small businesses, and that corporate and ownership structure are important in assessing the effect of these issues.

Chakraborty, Atreya and Charles X. Hu. "Lending Relationships in Line-of-Credit

and Non-Line-of-Credit Loans: Evidence from Collateral Use in Small

Business." Journal of Financial Intermediation. 15, no. 1 (2006): 86-107.

Lender-borrower relationships facilitate monitoring in small business loans. We investigate how the duration and scope of the bank-borrower relationship affect the decision to secure line-of-credit and nonline-of-credit loans. We find that the likelihood of collateralizing a lien of credit decreases with the length of the bank-borrower relationship. For nonline-of-credit loans, however, the incidence of collateral pledge decrease with the number of lender-provided financial services used by the borrower. Our finding indicates that the mechanism through which banks obtain private information depends on the type of the loan. Pooling across loan types may dilute the impact of both the duration and scope on the terms of a loan.

Cole, Rebel A. "The Importance of Relationships to the Availability of

Credit." Journal of Banking and Finance 22, nos. 6-8 (August 1998): 959-77.

This article examines the effect of pre-existing relationships between a firm and its potential lender on the potential lender's decision whether or not to extend credit to the firm. It is found that the potential lender is more likely to extend credit to a firm with which it has a pre-existing relationship as a source of financial services, but that the length of this relationship is unimportant. These findings provide empirical support for theories of financial intermediation positing that banking relationships generate valuable private information about the financial prospects of the financial institution's customer. The results also provide evidence that potential lenders are less likely to extend credit to firms with multiple sources of financial services, in support of the theory that the private information a financial institution generates about a firm is less valuable when the firm deals with multiple sources of financial services.

Cole, Rebel A., Lawrence G. Goldberg, and Lawrence J. White. "Cookie-Cutter

versus Character: The Micro Structure of Small Business Lending by Large

and Small Banks." Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions

Working Paper: S/99/12. New York University. February 1999.

Consolidation in the U.S. banking system has focused attention on the differences in lending between large and small banks because large banks lend proportionately less to small business. We use a survey of small businesses conducted by the Federal Reserve to analyze the micro-level differences between large banks and small banks in the loan approval process. We provide evidence that large banks ($1 billion or more in assets) employ standard criteria obtained from financial statements in the loan decision process, but that small banks (less than $1 billion assets) deviate rom these criteria by relying to a larger extent upon the character of the borrower. These "cookie-cutter" and "character" approaches are consistent with the incentives and environments facing large and small banks.

Cole, Rebel A. and Nicholas Walraven. "The Effect of Mergers and Acquisitions

on Bank Lending Policies." Mimeographed: December 2, 1997.

In this study, we use firm-level data from the National Survey of Small Business Finances to examine the effect of bank mergers and acquisitions on the availability of credit to small businesses. We find that both acquirers and targets in bank mergers are less likely than other banks to extend to small business loan applicants. However, these differences disappear after we control for urban and rural location of the lending bank. These results provide some tentative evidence that the ongoing consolidation in the banking industry has not adversely affected the availability of credit to small businesses.

Cole, Rebel A., and John D. Wolken. "Financial Services Used by Small

Businesses: Evidence from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business

Finances." Federal Reserve Bulletin 81, 7 (July 1995): 629-67.

This article offers preliminary findings regarding the characteristics of the U.S. population of small businesses--firms with fewer than 500 employees--and their use of credit and other financial services.
Article (193 KB PDF)

Cole, Rebel A., John D. Wolken and R. Louise Woodburn. "Bank and Nonbank

Competition for Small Business Credit: Evidence from the 1987 and 1993

National Surveys of Small Business Finances." Federal Reserve Bulletin

82, 11 (November 1996): 983-95.

This paper explores competition between banks and nonbanks in the U.S. market for small business credit. It analyzes the bank and nonbank shares of the dollar amount of outstanding credit to small businesses, including how these shares have changed from 1987 to 1993. This paper also examines the incidence of small business borrowing from banks and nonbanks, which is defined as the percentage of firms using credit of a certain type or from a particular source.
Article (118 KB PDF)

Coleman, Susan. "Access to Capital and Terms of Credit: A Comparison of Men-

and Women-Owned Small Businesses." Journal of Small Business

Management 38, no. 3 (July 2000): 37-52.

This article compares access to capital for men- and women-owned small business using data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances. Findings reveal that women-owned firms are less likely to use external financing as a source of capital. It does not appear, however, that lenders discriminate against women on the basis of gender in terms of access to capital. A second part of this study examines the terms under which women obtain credit to determine whether they are at a relative disadvantage from that perspective. Findings reveal that women-owned firms paid higher interest rates than men for their most recent loans. In addition, women-owned service firms were more likely to put up collateral than men-owned service firms.

Coleman, Susan. "Constraints Faced by Women Small Business Owners: Evidence

from the Data." Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship 7, no. 2 (August

2002): 151-174.

Traditional capital structure theory contends that firms select the mix of debt and equity that minimizes their cost of capital and maximizes the value of the firm. Prior research suggests, however, that small firms, and particularly small women-owned firms experience difficulty in securing sources of debt capital. This article explores some of the possible constraints faced by women business owners using data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances. Although results do not demonstrate evidence of non-economic discrimination against women-owned firms, they do reveal that certain characteristics typical of many women-owned firms, including small size, limited prospects for growth and profitability, and failure to provide collateral or guarantees reduce the likelihood of obtaining debt capital. Thus, for smaller firms, capital structure may be at least partially dictated by the characteristics of the firm rather than by the choices of the owner-manager.

Coleman, Susan. "Small Firm Use of Debt: An Examination of the Smallest

Small Firms." The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance & Business Ventures

1, no. 1 (2001): 51-76.

Access to capital is an on-going challenge for small firms. Capital is required to address a broad range of needs: to cover start-up costs, to provide working capital, to secure facilities or equipment, and to hire employees. Most small firms are at a relative disadvantage, because they are too small to access the public debt and equity markets. Similarly, they are typically too small to show up on the radar screens of venture capitalists on patrol for the next potential hot IPO. Alternatively, very small firms are heavily reliant on bank loans, trade credit, and informal sources of capital including loans from family and friends.

This paper will use data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances (NSSBF) to examine the financing strategies of very small firms, a largely understudied segment of the small business market. Specifically, it will examine the types of debt capital used by the smallest small firms and compare their usage to that of somewhat larger small firms. Further this article will attempt to determine the variables that predict the use of debt capital and externally acquired debt capital by small firms and larger firms. Finally, it will explore the extent to which smaller and larger firms apply for external debt capital and the extent to which they are approved for loans.

Coleman, Susan. "Sources of Small Business Capital: A Comparison of Men and

Women-Owned Small Businesses." The Journal of Applied Management and

Entrepreneurship 4,no. 2 (January 1999): 138-151.

Recent reports have indicated that increasingly, small businesses are the engine of economic growth and job creation (The State of Small Business... 1995). In many parts of the country, major industries and employers continue to consolidate and merge. Simultaneously, however, small businesses have been a growing and vibrant part of the economy. Given the miportant role played by small businesses in job creation, it is in our interest to identify and address particular barriers and difficulties faced by those who start, own, and operate small businesses.

One frequently cited difficulty is access to capital. Unlike larger, well-known, and well established firms, small businesses typically do not have the option of issuing stocks and bonds to finance new products, geographic expansion, equipment, and growth. Alternatively, they are heavily reliant on bank financing and "informal" sources of capital including personal savings, loans from family and friends, and personal credit rather than businesses credit (Cole & Wolken, 1995; Weinberg, 1994).

Prior research suggests that women small business owners experience greater difficulty accessing capital than men (Brush, 1992; Buttner & Rosen ,1988; Collerett & Aubry, 1990; Riding & Swift, 1990). Further, women are less likely to use banks as a source of capital than men (Coleman & Carsky, 1996a). This article will use a national sample of small businesses to examine the extent to which men and women rely on various sources of external debt capital.

Coleman, Susan, and Mary Carsky. "Sources of Capital for Small Family-Owned

Businesses: Evidence from the National Survey of Small Business Finances."

Family Business Review 12, no. 1 (March 1999): 73-85.

Securing adequate capital is an ongoing challenge for many small family-owned businesses. This article uses data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances to determine the extent to which small family-owned firms use various types of credit products. Using logistic regression, it also identifies variables that predict the likelihood of using credit. Findings reveal that size, age, and profitability of the firm were the most important predictors. Results also indicate that there were virtually no differences between family-owned and nonfamily-owned businesses in the usage of various credit products.

Coleman, Susan and Richard Cohn. "The ‘Lack of Separation' Revisited: Small

Business Owners and Risk." Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance 6, no. 1

(2001): 104-114.

The close link between the personal financial affairs of a small business owner and his or her firm has been noted in prior research. This article compares attitudes toward risk on the part of small business owners (SBOs) and non-small business owners (NSBOs). In addition, it compares the personal balance sheets of SBOs to those of NSBOs to determine if SBOs hold a higher level of risky assets. Results reveal that small business owners express a greater willingness to accept risk and hold a higher level of risky assets in their personal portfolios. This finding is consistent with small business owners' willingness to own and operate small firms which are, by their very nature, risky.

Coleman, Susan and Richard Cohn. "Borrowing Behavior of Small Black-Owned

Firms." The Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship. 6, no. 2

(2001): 68-81.

External debt, and in particular, commercial bank loans, are an important source of financing for small firms. To date, there has been little research on the potential effects of race on commercial lending decisions. This article uses data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances to examine the effect of race on commercial lending. Results reveal that, while black-owned firms were no less likely than white-owned firms to apply for a loan, they were less likely to be approved for one. Results also reveal that black-owned firms tended to pay higher interest rates on their external loans.

Coleman, Susan, and Richard Cohn. "The Role of Debt in Small Business Finance:

A Comparison of Men- and Women-Owned Firms." Academy of

Entrepreneurship Journal 6, no. 2 (2000): 87-103.

This study compares the use of financial leverage by men- and women-owned small firms. Findings reveal similar borrowing behavior between the two. For both, larger firms used higher total debt, but smaller firms used more external or interest-bearing debt. Age of the firm owner was negatively related to the use of debt. This finding was more pronounced for women business owners than for men.

Coleman, Susan and Richard Cohn. "Small Firm Use of Leverage:

A Comparison of Men- and Women-Owned Firms." Proceedings of the 1999

United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship

National Conference, (1999): 121-136.

Prior research and anecdotal evidence suggests that women-owned small businesses use less debt than men. This study uses data from a nationwide sample of small businesses to determine differences in leverage between men and women-owned firms. Findings reveal that the primary determinants of leverage are firm size, firm age, and profitability. There were no significant differences in the usage of debt between men and women, and gender was not a significant predictor of financial leverage.

Coleman, Susan and Richard Cohn. "Small Firms' Use of Financial

Leverage: Evidence from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business

Finances." Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 1999.

Babson College, University of South Carolina. 1999.

Also in Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship 12, no. 3 (October 2000):

87-103.

This research examines capital structure theory as it applies to small, privately held firms. We hypothesized that, given the fine line between the firm and the firm owner in small firms, lenders should take both the characteristics of the firm and those of the borrower into consideration. Our findings reveal that leverage is predominantly a function of firm characteristics rather than owner characteristics. The owner's educational level, however, was a positive predictor of external debt, suggesting that lenders may use education as a proxy for human capital.

Danielson, Morris G. and Jonathon A. Scott. "A Note on Bank Loan

Availability and Trade Credit Demand." Mimeographed: February 2003.

This paper investigates the effects of bank loan availability on the trade credit and credit card demand of small firms, using firm-level data from the 1995 Credit, Banks, and Small Business Survey, conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business. We find that firms increase their trade credit and credit card demand when facing credit constraints imposed by banks. Because trade credit and credit cards can be expensive sources of medium-term funds, this finding provides evidence of a pecking order of debt financing, in which firms select more expensive sources of funds when bank loans are not available.

Detragiache, Enrica, Paolo Garella, and Luigi Guiso. "Multiple versus

Single Banking Relationships: Theory and Evidence." Journal of Finance 55,

no. 3 (June 2000): 1133-1161.

A theory of the optimal number of banking relationships is developed and tested using matched bank-firm data. According to the theory, relationship banks may be unable to continue funding profitable projects owning to internal problems and a firm may thus have to refinance from nonrelationship banks. The latter, however, face an adverse selection problem, as they do not know the quality of the project, and may refuse to lend. In these circumstances, multiple banking can reduce the probability of an early liquidation of the project. The empirical evidence supports the predictions of the model.

Dunkelberg, William C. and Jonathon A. Scott. "A Note on Competition

and Small Firm Credit Market Outcomes." Mimeographed: January 2002.

Using survey data from a sample of small U.S. firms, assessments of changes in reported bank competition for their financial business is related to several credit market outcomes. The analysis is limited to a sample of larger, creditworthy small firms to avoid the vexing endogeneity problem of favorable competition assessments being associated with good credit quality. For this restricted sample, increases in reported intensity of competition for their banking business are associated with an improved fulfillment of credit needs, lower rates, and a lower number of services with fees. This effect is in addition to the effect of traditional measures of competition based on market concentration such as a Herfindahl-Hirshman Index of bank deposit concentration, which is not significant in explaining any of the outcomes used.

Fenn, George W. and Nellie Liang. "New Resources and New Ideas: Private

Equity for Small Businesses." Journal of Banking and Finance 22, nos. 6-8

(August 1998): 1077-84.

Private equity for rapidly growing small business is raised primarily from the organized venture capital market and the informal market, comprised of high- net worth individuals or "angel" investors. This paper explores commercially and publicly available data on private equity, the research findings of studies that use these data, and some of the more important questions that the available data have been unable to address.

Fernando, Cresenta, Atreya Chakraborty, and Rajiv Mallick. "The Importance of

Being Known: Relationship Banking and Credit Limits." Brandeis University,

Charles River Associates, and Harvard Business School. Mimeographed:

January 2002.

This paper measures the importance of bank-firm relationships in obtaining higher credit "limits." We use data from a relatively unused section of the National Survey of Small Business Finance (NSSBF, 1993) on credit limits, credit sources, and contract terms for firms with lines of credit from multiple banks. This lets us isolate the credit limit that each bank provides the same firm, eliminating the need to control for often immeasurable, unreliable, or firm-specific "soft" information. For a median Line of Credit (LOC) of $250,000, we find that a bank with a five-year information advantage provides a LOC limit that is $20,000 higher. We also find that purchase of loan and non-loan services by firm from the contracting bank affects the credit limit differently. Non-loan services increase the credit limit and loan services decrease the credit limit. Our findings confirm anecdotal claims from the small business community that relationships are vital to secure higher credit limits.

Folta, Timothy B., Jonathan P. O'Brien, and Douglas R. Johnson. "A real options

perspective on entrepreneurial entry in the face of uncertainty." Managerial

and Decision Economics 24, no. 8 (November 2003): 515 - 533.

In this paper we develop and test theory regarding whether entrepreneurs contemplating starting a new venture account for the value of the option to defer the entry decision. While others have illuminated the theoretical applicability of real options theory to entrepreneurship, empirical evidence in this context is lacking. Consistent with predictions derived from real options theory, we find that high uncertainty in the target industry dissuades entry, and that the irreversibility of the entry decision moderates this relationship. Furthermore, we find that the irreversibility of the investment decision can be influenced by industry-level, firm-level and even individual-level factors.

Guiso, Luigi and Raoul Minetti. "Multiple Creditors and Information Rights:

Theory and Evidence from U.S. Firms." University of Sassari and Michigan

State University. Mimeographed: August 2003.

We analyze how a firm allocates information rights across its multiple banks. By differentiating their information, a firm prevents its banks from continuing projects only to use their superior information and seize assets during the reorganization. However, informational diversity can lead to the premature liquidation of good projects. We derive the optimal allocation of information as a function of the redeployability and the heterogeneity of the assets of the firm, and of the costs of restructuring the firm in distress. Using a sample of U.S. firms, we find evidence that supports the empirical predictions of the model.

Haynes, George W. “Finance Companies and Small Business Borrowers: Evidence

from the 1993 and 1998 Surveys of Small Business Finances.” U.S. Small

Business Administration Office of Advocacy. April 2005.

Finance companies play an important role in providing short- and medium-term financial capital to small business borrowers. They are the most important institutional providers of capital to small businesses after banks. This study examines whether finance companies’ importance in providing financial capital to small business borrowers changed during the 1990s. This is interesting because the 1990s were a decade of rapid growth in financial markets, including expansion in interstate banking and lending by both finance companies and commercial banks. This study uses the most recent data on small business finances to evaluate the importance of finance companies to small business borrowers in 1993 and 1998; to assess what types of borrowers were attracted to finance companies; and to determine if these finance company borrowers paid higher loan prices. The analysis of the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances (SSBF) confirmed the importance of finance companies as the second most important institutional supplier of credit to small business borrowers—they remained important providers of credit for vehicle loans, equipment loans, and lease financing. While on the surface, small business borrowers were more likely to utilize finance companies for traditional loans in 1998 than 1993, this result held only for capital leases and mortgage loans, which were not major sources of financing to small firms . Small business’ use of the major products marketed by finance companies—vehicle and equipment loans—remained important but unchanged during 1993 and 1998. In addition, this study suggests that small businesses- relationships with finance companies remained virtually unchanged from 1993 to 1998; finance companies continued to attract good quality clients with low credit risk, similar to those who utilized commercial banks.

Haynes, George W. and Rosemary J. Avery. "Family Businesses: Can the Family

and the Business Finances be Separated? Preliminary Results." The Journal

of Entrepreneurial and Small Business Finance 5, no. 1 (1996): 61-74.

Small businesses had nearly $1.25 trillion in loans outstanding from commercial lenders, business finance companies, other businesses in the form of trade credit, and friends and relatives in the early 1990's (Ou, 1991). Based on recent information derived from the National Survey on Small Business Finance (NSSBF), loans held by commercial banks and family members or owners of the firm were significant sources of credit, comprising 54 and 18 percent of all loans, respectively (Haynes, 1996). The relative importance of these types of loans suggests that the finances of the business and the family are often intertwined. This study utilizes the recently released Survey of Consumer Finances to examine the impact of small business ownership on the household's debt structure.

Haynes, George W. and Deborah C. Haynes. "The Debt Structure of Small

Businesses Owned by Women in 1987 and 1993." Journal of Small Business

Management 37, no 2. (April 1999): 1-19.

Also in Consumer Interests Annual 44, (1998): 36-41.

This study examines the access women-owned small business borrowers had to financial capital provided by institutional and non-institutional lenders in 1987 and 1993 using the National Survey of Small Business Finance. This study utilizes non-linear (logit and tobit) multivariate regression models to examine the probability of holding a debt instrument and the share of total debt held in each debt instrument by women-owned business borrowers. While women-owned small businesses still have a higher probability of borrowing from family and friends, the results suggest that women-owned small businesses have gained similar access to line-of-credit loans from commercial banks as men-owned small businesses over the period of time from 1987 to 1993.

Haynes, George W., Charles Ou, and Robert Berney. "Small Business Borrowing

from Large and Small Banks." Presented at Federal Reserve System Research

Conference, February 5, 1999.

Recent research on bank consolidations suggests that credit supplies to small business borrowers have been declining, especially in instances where large, complex bank are involved. When banks with a small percentage of small business loans merges with a smaller bank, credit supplies to small businesses also decline, as seen in papers by Zardkoohi and Koari, and Peek and Rosengren. This study complements the work of these authors by assessing whether small businesses have less access to bank credit from large banks than larger businesses using the National Survey of Small Business Finances. This study examines the impact of commercial bank size on the use of debt instruments (line-of-credit, lease, mortgage, vehicle, or equipment loans) supplied by small and large commercial banks; and, assesses the impact of bank size on selected borrowers.

Jayaratne, Jith, and John Wolken. "How Important are Small Banks to Small

Business Lending? New Evidence from a Survey of Small Firms." Journal of

Banking and Finance 23, nos. 2-4 (February 1999): 427-458.

Typically, small banks lend a larger proportion of their assets to small businesses than do large banks. The recent wave of bank mergers has thinned the ranks of small banks, raising the concern that small firms may find it difficult to access bank credit. However, bank consolidation will reduce small business credit only if small banks enjoy an advantage in lending to small businesses. The existence of a small bank cost advantage in small business lending is tested by conducting the following simple test: If such advantages exist, then small businesses in areas with few small banks will have less credit. Using data on small business borrowers from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances, the results show that the probability of a small firm having a line of credit from a bank does not decrease in the long run when there are fewer small banks in the area, although short-run disruptions may occur. Also, firms in areas with few small banks are not any more likely to repay trade credit late, suggesting that such firms are no more credit constrained than firms in areas with many small banks.

Johnson, Simon, John McMillan, and Christopher Woodruff. “Property Rights and

Finance.” The American Economic Review 92, no. 5 (December 2002):

1335-1356.

Which is the tigheter constraint on private sector investment: weak property rights or limited access to external finance? From a survey of new firms in post-communist countries, we find that weak property rights discourage firms from reinvesting their profits, even when bank loans are available. Where property rights are relatively strong, firms reinvest their profits; where they are relatively weak, entrepreneurs do not want to invest from retained earnings.

Kashyap, Anil K., Raghuram Rajan, and Jeremy C. Stein. “Banks as Liquidity

Providers: An Explanation for the Co-existence of Lending and

Deposit-Taking.” NBER Working Paper No. 6962. February 1999.

This paper addresses the following question: what ties together the traditional commercial banking activities of deposit-taking and lending? We begin by observing that since banks often lend via commitments, or credit lines, their lending and deposit-taking may be two manifestations of the same primitive function: the provision of liquidity on demand. After all, once the decision to extend a line of credit has been made, it is really nothing more than a checking account with overdraft privileges. This observation leads us to argue that there will naturally be synergies between the two activities, to the extent that both require banks to hold large volumes of liquid assets (cash and securities) on their balance sheets: if deposit withdrawals and commitment takedowns are imperfectly correlated, the two activities can share any deadweight costs of holding the liquid assets. We develop this idea with a simple model, and then use a variety of data to test the model’s empirical implications.

Kiser, Elizabeth K. "The Perceived Cost of Changing Banks: Switching

Behavior Among Small Businesses." Board of Governors of the Federal

Reserve System. Mimeographed: December 1997.

This study seeks to identify the factors that affect a small business's perceived cost of changing financial institutions, using data from the 1993 Survey of Small Business Finances. Reported firm tenure at financial institutions is combined with descriptive evidence on firm characteristics, owner demographics, and the financial services obtained by firms to suggest patterns in the flexibility of small businesses in changing financial institutions. The evidence from the preliminary analysis is then used to construct OLS, median and logit regression models that use firm characteristics to predict tenure and switching behavior. The results have two primary implications for merger analysis. First, the effects of increasing concentration in retail banking are likely to have a heterogeneous effect on small businesses, depending on firm and owner characteristics and attitudes. Second, the vast majority of firms appear to be quite inflexible in their ability or willingness to change financial institutions, reflected not only in their long tenure at their financial institutions, but also in their lack of response to rates and fees, as well as their continuing desire to bank in person. Hence, potential competition is likely to play only a small role in competition for retail banking for small businesses, and competitive pressures are likely to remain relatively weak in the face of greater concentration.

Kolari, James, Robert Berney, and Charles Ou. "Small Business

Lending and Bank Profitability." Journal of Entrepreneurial and Small

Business Finance 5, no. 1 (1996): 1- 15.

In theory commercial banks exist to resolve asymmetric information problems in credit markets. Because small business firms have much greater information problems than large firms, it is not surprising that they depend almost entirely on banks for external finance needs. Unfortunately, little is known either in academic literature or banking practice about the profitability of small business credit (and related information) services. The present study employs recently available business loan size information from the Call Reports for all insured U.S. commercial banks in 1994 and 1995 to examine the relationship between bank profits and small business credit. Regression analyses are conducted using the rate of return on assets and business loans less than $250,000, in addition to a number of variables that proxy various dimensions of risk that potentially could influence this relationship. Due to the fact that small and large banks differ considerably in their lending activities, separate analyses are conducted for five asset size groups. In brief, we find that, while small business loans likely have a negligible effect the profits of large banks, they tend to increase the profitability of small banks over time, holding constant various bank risk characteristics.

Kwast, Myron L., M. Starr-McCluer, and John D. Wolken. "Market Definition

and the Analysis of Antitrust in Banking." The Antitrust Bulletin 42, no. 4

(Winter 1997): 973-95.

Also in Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1997-52, Board of

Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1997.

This article attempts to contribute to the debate of the procedures for analyzing the potential competitive impact of a proposed merger by utilizing two data sources that are particularly well-suited to examining some of the key hypotheses. This article uses the 1992 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances (NSSBF) to examine the extent to which households and small businesses (1) tend to focus their purchases of financial services at an insured depository, as opposed to nondepository, institutions,; (2) purchase their financial services locally; and (3) tend to cluster their purchases of financial services at a single "primary" financial institution.

Lim, William, Devashis Mitra, and Muhammad Rashid. "Determinants of the

Cash Discount Rate in Credit Policy." University of New Brunswick.

Mimeographed: December 2000.

In this paper, using data from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances, we find that the cash discount rate is determined by the behavioral and operating characteristics of buyers and sellers. Buyers with lower credit quality are offered higher cash discounts. Higher cash discounts are also associated with buyers who typically pay cash and who forward buy (i.e., accumulate inventory to take advantage of the higher cash discount). We explain how lower credit quality are tendencies to pay cash and forward buy proxy for higher cash discount elasticity, as these factors increase the sensitivity of the buyer to cash discounts. Therefore, the higher is the buyer's cash discount elasticity of demand, the higher is the cash discount rate offered. Next, sellers with higher profit margins and who face less competition offer higher cash discount rates. In addition, cash discount rates vary across industries due to varying product price elasticities. The cash discount rate d, discount period N1 and credit period N2 are also positively correlated with each other. Finally, the cash discount rate d is directly related to the net credit period (N2 - N1). We conclude the data do not reject the theoretical results of Rashid and Mitra (1999) and Lim and Rashid (2000), which suggest that trade credit policy must be fully integrated with the seller's overall pricing scheme and cannot be analyzed in isolation.

McMillan, John and Christopher Woodruff. “The Central Role of Entrepreneurs in

Transition Economies.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 16, no. 3

(Summer 2002): 153-170.

This paper provides a qualitative and quantitative description of how entrepreneurs contributed to the development of post-communist market economies. Topics include expected profits and firm entry, entrepreneurs’ strategies, state support for entrepreneurs, welfare effects of entrepreneurship, and policy implications. By creating jobs, supplying consumer goods, constraining the market power of state firms and building reform momentum, entrepreneurs in transition economies have produced real welfare gains. Data from the National Survey of Small Business Finances is used as a benchmark for comparisons among four transition economies.

Meyer, Laurence H. "The Present and Future Roles of Banks in Small

Business Finance." Journal of Banking and Finance 22, nos. 6-8 (August

1998): 1109-16.

Discusses the role of banks in supplying credit to small businesses. Topics include the importance of the bank-small business relationship, financial modernization, and the potential effects of bank mergers and acquisitions on small business lending.

Moskowitz, Tobias J. and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen. “The Returns to

Entrepreneurial Investment: A Private Equity Premium Puzzle.” The

American Economic Review 92, no. 4 (September 2002): 745-778.

We document the return to investing in U.S. nonpublicly traded equity. Entrepreneurial investment is extremely concentrated, yet despite its poor diversification, we find that the returns to private equity are no higher than the returns to public equity. Given the large public equity premium, it is puzzling why households willingly invest substantial amounts in a single privately held firm with a seemingly far worse risk-return trade-off. We briefly discuss how large nonpecuniary benefits, a preference for skewness, or overestimates of the probability of survival could potentially explain investment in private equity despite these findings.

Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration. "Minorities in Business."

Office of Advocacy. Washington, D.C., 1999.

Minority-owned businesses are an important segment of our nations' successful economy. They outpace other businesses in growth and participate in many different industries. The U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy estimates that there were 3.25 million minority-owned businesses in 1997, generating $495 billion in revenue and employing nearly 4 million workers. Their numbers have been increasing rapidly, growing 168 percent over the last decade. The growth in their revenues has been even more astonishing - 343 percent over the last decade, even after controlling for inflation.

The Office of Advocacy supports small business research - including that focused on minority-owned businesses - by identifying small business contributions, evaluating small business vital signs, determining regulatory impacts on small businesses, and monitoring the financing of small businesses. In this report, the Office of Advocacy has analyzed the available data on minority-owned businesses to estimate the number and contributions of these firms. The data sources indicate that significant growth has occurred in all areas.

Ou, Charles and George W. Haynes. "Uses of Equity Capital by Small Firms –

Findings from the Surveys of Small Business Finances (for 1993 & 1998)."

2003. Paper presented at the Academy of Entrepreneurial Finance 14th

International Conference, April 30th - May 2nd. Chicago, Illinois

While the importance of venture capital to the growth of small firms has been widely discussed during the past decade, little is known about the uses of equity capital, especially internal equity capital, by the majority of small firms in the United States. Information from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Small Business Finances provides a rare opportunity to examine this important issue.

This paper utilizes the information collected in the 1993 and 1998 Small Business Finances surveys to investigate the uses of equity capital by small firms. We found that while the importance of new issue markets (IPOs) and the role of venture capital investment in promoting the growth of small dynamic firms cannot be denied, the importance of external equity capital in promoting the formation and the growth of small firms seems to be overstated. Only a very small number of small firms used external equity. In fact, the information on the uses of venture capital (equity capital from external sources) from the national surveys is too limited to permit a statistical analysis of the factors determining their uses by small firms. It is the internal equity capital, not external equity, that is one of the major financing sources for most of small firms in these surveys. A majority of small firms relied on internal sources of capital (owner's capital, owner's loans, and retained earnings) and external borrowing from financial institutions to finance their business operation and growth. There appeared to be a "pecking order" of borrowing from financial sources from internal sources to financial institutions to non-financial lenders. In addition, internal equity and commercial bank loans appeared to be complementary financial resources.

Petersen, Mitchell and Raghuram Rajan. "Does Distance Still Matter:

The Information Revolution in Small Business Lending." NBER Working

Paper Series No. W7685. May 2000.

Also in The Journal of Finance 57, no. 6 (December 2002): 2533-2570.

The distance between small firms and their lenders in the United States is increasing. Not only are firms choosing more distant lenders, they are also communicating with them in more impersonal ways. After documenting these systematic changes, we demonstrate that they do not stem from small firms locating differently, from consolidation in the banking industry, or from biases in the sample. Instead, they seem correlated with improvements in bank productivity. We conjecture that greater, and more timely, availability of borrower credit records, as well as the greater ease of processing these, may explain the increased lending at a distance. Consistent with such an explanation, distant firms no longer have to be observably the highest quality credits, suggesting that a wider cross-section of firms can now obtain funding from a particular lender. These findings, we believe, are direct evidence that there has been substantial development of the financial sector, even in areas such as small business lending that have not been directly influenced by the growth in public markets. From a policy perspective, that small firms now obtain wider access to financing suggests the consolidation of banking services may not raise as strong anti-trust concerns as in the past.

Rutherford, Matthew W., Patrick McMullen, and Sharon Oswald. "Examining the

Issue of Size and the Small Business: A Self Organizing Map Approach."

Auburn University. Mimeographed.

Also in Journal of Business and Economic Studies 7, no. 2 (Fall 2001): 64-82.

The purpose of this work is to serve as point of departure for the size and small business field of research. Specifically, we explore the issue of firm size with an unconventional research methodology. It is the contention of this research that differences in firm size must be considered in attempting to predict antecedents of firm success or firm survival because there are vast differences in the behavior patterns of firms across size, as measured by number of employees. We base this belief, in part, on the concept of the organization life cycle (Howard and Hines 1997), and the financial growth cycle works of Berger and Udell (1998). Therefore, we test the hypothesis that small firms will classify into multiple groups with regard to a set of commonly studied small firm and business owner constructs. Using a self organizing map (SOM) approach we find that small businesses classify into two distinct groups. Implications and limits are discussed.

Rutherford, Matthew W. and Sharon L. Oswald. "Antecedents of Small Business

Success." Paper presented at The Academy of Management Chicago 1999

Conference: Change and Development Journeys into a Pluralistic World,

August 6th- 11th, Chicago, Illinois.

This paper focuses on what makes small businesses successful and whether consistent patterns of success can be identified. The methodology draws upon prior research; however, it improves upon previous work by using a significantly larger sample size, representing a large array of industries across the US, and utilizing multiple performance measures (Ibrahim & Goodwin, 1986; Cragg & King, 1988; Perry, Meredith & Cunnington, 1988). Results indicate that owner/manager education, owner/manager experience, and record keeping classification have an effect on small firm performance as measured by return on assets, return on equity, return on sales, and return on cash flow. However, gender and legal structure were found to be relatively unimportant. Implications are suggested.

Rutherford, Matthew W. and Sharon L. Oswald. "The Growth Cycle Theory of

Small Firm Financing: An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship

between the Organizational Life Cycle and Small Firm Financing." Auburn

University. Mimeographed.

How do financing options vary over the life cycle of a firm? This work empirically examined a generally accepted model of small firm financing behavior: the financial growth cycle theory. Based on a sample of 558 companies, we analyzed the relationship between stage of the organizational life cycle and the sources of capital used by firms. The data found firm size, industry-type, owner age, and structure to be good discriminators. However, information availability and firm age were not. The results suggest that traditional finance theory does not fully explain small firm financing behavior.

Samolyk, Katherine. "Small Business Credit Markets: Why do we know so

little about them?" FDIC Banking Review 10, no. 2 (1997): 14-32.

Focuses on two central issues: To what extent do relationships with lenders affect the credit conditions faced by small businesses, and how will bank consolidation affect credit availability to smaller business borrowers. Includes descriptions of the data that have been collected from small businesses and from commercial banks and summaries of the studies done to date on relationship lending and on bank consolidation.

Scherr, Frederick C. and Heather M. Hulburt. "The Debt Maturity Structure

of Small Firms." Financial Management 30, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 85-111.

Small firms differ from large firms in taxability, ownership, flexibility, industry, economies of scale, financial market access, and level of information asymmetry. We investigate the determinants of small firms' choice of the maturity structure of debt. We find that small firms' maturity of assets, capital structure, and probability of default are statistically and economically important in the choice of debt maturity. We find little evidence that small firms' growth options, level of asymmetric information, and tax status affect debt maturity choice.

So, Jacky Yuk-Chow. "Capital Market Imperfections and Leasing- New Evidence

from the Very Small Firms." Presented at Annual Conference of the Academy

of Entrepreneurial Finance, April 27-28, 2001, Syracuse, New York.

This study examines the relationship among capital market imperfections, debt financing, and leasing. Using the Small Business Finance Survey database, provided by the Federal Reserve Board and the Small Business Administration Office, this paper documents that small firms, that had stronger "earning power" and larger sizes, tended to use less debt financing. The "size" effect had significant impact on operating lease, but not capital lease, of the companies. Using a maximum likelihood method, we find that operating-lease was determined by bankruptcy risk, growth, and size. The last variable also affected capital lease.

So, Jacky Yuk-Chow. “Agency Costs and Ownership Structure: Evidence from the

Small Business Finance Survey Data Base.” U.S. Small Business

Administration Office of Advocacy. December 2005.

Smaller firms for which ownership is not separate from management should experience agency problems to a lesser extent than large, publicly-traded firms. Family shareholders usually are less likely to expropriate bondholder wealth than other shareholders; family firms may also have incentive structures that result in fewer agency conflicts between equity and debt claimants. The Federal Reserve Board’s 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances (NSSBF) database was used to test the hypotheses. Agency costs of owner-managed and outsider-managed firms as measure by the ratios of operating expenses to sales and sales to assets are not signif