IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jfinan/v75y2020i1p45-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Access to Collateral and the Democratization of Credit: France's Reform of the Napoleonic Security Code

Author

Listed:
  • KEVIN ARETZ
  • MURILLO CAMPELLO
  • MARIA‐TERESA MARCHICA

Abstract

France's Ordonnance 2006‐346 repudiated the notion of possessory ownership in the Napoleonic Code, easing the pledge of physical assets in a country where credit was highly concentrated. A differences‐test strategy shows that firms operating newly pledgeable assets significantly increased their borrowing following the reform. Small, young, and financially constrained businesses benefitted the most, observing improved credit access and real‐side outcomes. Start‐ups emerged with higher “at‐inception” leverage, located farther from large cities, with more assets‐in‐place than before. Their exit and bankruptcy rates declined. Spatial analyses show that the reform reached firms in rural areas, reducing credit access inequality across France's countryside.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Aretz & Murillo Campello & Maria‐Teresa Marchica, 2020. "Access to Collateral and the Democratization of Credit: France's Reform of the Napoleonic Security Code," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(1), pages 45-90, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jfinan:v:75:y:2020:i:1:p:45-90
    DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12846
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12846
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jofi.12846?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shi, Wenxiang & Fang, Peijie, 2023. "Delisting regulation and corporate financialization: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    2. Bernhardt, Dan & Koufopoulos, Kostas & Trigilia, Giulio, 2021. "The pitfalls of pledgeable cash flows : soft budget constraints, zombie lending and under-investment," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1327, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    3. Bernhardt, Dan & Koufopoulos, Kostas & Trigilia, Giulio, 2020. "Is there a paradox of pledgeability?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(3), pages 606-611.
    4. Mathias Lé & Frédéric Vinas, 2020. "The Financing of Investment: Firm Size, Asset Tangibility and the Size of Investment," Working papers 777, Banque de France.
    5. Bu, Di & Liao, Yin, 2022. "Land property rights and rural enterprise growth: Evidence from land titling reform in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    6. Shiyi Chen & Wanlin Liu & Hong Song & Qing Zhang, 2024. "Government‐led e‐commerce expansion project and rural household income: Evidence and mechanisms," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 150-174, January.
    7. Campello, Murillo & Connolly, Robert A. & Kankanhalli, Gaurav & Steiner, Eva, 2022. "Do real estate values boost corporate borrowing? Evidence from contract-level data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 611-644.
    8. Abderrahim Assab, 2023. "Flood Insurance, Building Codes, and Public Adaptation: Implications for Airport Investment and Financial Constraints," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-29, August.
    9. Yuqiang Cao & Weiming Liang & Guocheng Yang & Jun Yin, 2022. "Judicial Independence and Domestic Supply Chain: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Liu, Guanchun & Liu, Yuanyuan & Ye, Yongwei & Zhang, Chengsi, 2021. "Collateral menus and corporate employment: Evidence from China's Property Law," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 686-709.

    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:bla:jfinan:v:75:y:2020:i:1:p:45-90. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afaaaea.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.