IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v80y1990i2p160-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Asymmetric Information and the New Theory of the Firm: Financial Constraints and Risk Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Greenwald, Bruce C
  • Stiglitz, Joseph E

Abstract

This paper summarizes recent developments in the theory of the firm that have arisen in examining the implications of imperfect information. It shows that a wide range of these models have similar implications for the likely reaction of firms to external environmental and policy changes. Two significant implications are (1) that firms behave as if they are risk averse individuals maximizing a utility function of terminal wealth (profitability) -- even when the risks involved are unsystematic -- and (2), in many circumstances, because this utility function is likely to be characterized by decreasing absolute risk aversion, firms are likely to respond significantly (and positively) to changes in cash flow and profitability. Together these two phenomena are able to account for a wide range of firm behaviors that have been empirically observed (both formally and informally) and that are difficult to explain in terms of the traditional theory of the firm. Furthermore, the responses of such firms to policy interventions are likely to differ significantly from those of neoclassical firms.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Greenwald, Bruce C & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1990. "Asymmetric Information and the New Theory of the Firm: Financial Constraints and Risk Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 160-165, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:80:y:1990:i:2:p:160-65
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8282%28199005%2980%3A2%3C160%3AAIATNT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A&origin=repec
    File Function: full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruce C. Greenwald & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1993. "Financial Market Imperfections and Business Cycles," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(1), pages 77-114.
    2. Leland, Hayne E & Pyle, David H, 1977. "Informational Asymmetries, Financial Structure, and Financial Intermediation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 371-387, May.
    3. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michele Dell'Era & Luis Santos-Pinto, 2011. "Entrepreneurial Overconfidence, Self-Financing and Capital Market Efficiency," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 11.06, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie, revised Nov 2012.
    2. Mark J. Garmaise & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2002. "Confronting Information Asymmetries: Evidence from Real Estate Markets," NBER Working Papers 8877, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 1992. "Developing country capital structures and emerging stock markets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 933, The World Bank.
    4. Hoff Karla, 2010. "Dysfunctional Finance: Positive Shocks and Negative Outcomes," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-24, January.
    5. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2008_019 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Steinherr, Alfred & Cisotta, Alessandro & Klar, Erik & Sehovic, Kenan, 2006. "Liberalizing Cross-Border Capital Flows: How Effective Are Institutional Arrangements against Crisis in Southeast Asia," Working Papers on Regional Economic Integration 6, Asian Development Bank.
    7. Jay Janney & Greg Dess & Victor Forlani, 2009. "Glass Houses? Market Reactions to Firms Joining the UN Global Compact," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 407-423, December.
    8. Clement Olalekan Olaniyi & James Temitope Dada & Nicholas Mbaya Odhiambo & Xuan Vinh Vo, 2023. "Modelling asymmetric structure in the finance-poverty nexus: empirical insights from an emerging market economy," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 453-487, February.
    9. Anastasios, Dosis, 2019. "Interest Rates and Investment Under Competitive Screening and Moral Hazard," ESSEC Working Papers WP1902, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    10. Vladimir Asriyan & Victoria Vanasco, 2019. "Security Design in Non-Exclusive Markets with Asymmetric Information," Working Papers 1164, Barcelona School of Economics.
    11. Petrick, Martin, 2004. "Governing Structural Change And Externalities In Agriculture: Toward A Normative Institutional Economics Of Rural Development," IAMO Discussion Papers 14878, Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    12. Gorman, Gary G. & Rosa, Peter J. & Faseruk, Alex, 2005. "Institutional lending to knowledge-based businesses," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 793-819, November.
    13. Paula Hill, 2007. "Declared investment plans and IPO firm value," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 23-39.
    14. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1990. "Introduction to "Asymmetric Information, Corporate Finance, and Investment"," NBER Chapters, in: Asymmetric Information, Corporate Finance, and Investment, pages 1-14, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Sean Nicholson, 2005. "Biotech-Pharmaceutical Alliances as a Signal of Asset and Firm Quality," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(4), pages 1433-1464, July.
    16. Enzo Scannella & Salvatore Polizzi, 2021. "How to measure bank credit risk disclosure? Testing a new methodological approach based on the content analysis framework," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 73-95, March.
    17. Beat Reber & Caroline Fong, 2006. "Explaining mispricing of initial public offerings in Singapore," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(18), pages 1339-1353.
    18. GEORGE McKENZIE & MANZOOR KHALIDI, 1994. "The EU Directive on Deposit Insurance: A Critical Evaluation," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 171-190, June.
    19. Andy Lardon & Marc Deloof, 2014. "Financial disclosure by SMEs listed on a semi-regulated market: evidence from the Euronext Free Market," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 361-385, February.
    20. Bruno Biais & Thomas Mariotti, 2005. "Strategic Liquidity Supply and Security Design," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 615-649.
    21. Fernandes, Leonardo H.S. & Silva, José W.L. & de Araujo, Fernando H.A. & Ferreira, Paulo & Aslam, Faheem & Tabak, Benjamin Miranda, 2022. "Interplay multifractal dynamics among metal commodities and US-EPU," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 606(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:80:y:1990:i:2:p:160-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.