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Should Courts Enforce Credit Contracts Strictly?

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  • Alberto Zazzaro

Abstract

The intimate linkages between law and finance are currently the centre of wide-ranging empirical investigations. This article presents a simple banking model with information asymmetries concerning borrowers' entrepreneurial talent. It is shown that improvements in the enforcement of contract by courts reduce agency problems but can also reduce the bank's incentive to screen borrowers adequately, thus worsening credit allocation. A stricter enforcement of credit contracts, therefore, may be socially harmful even if costlessly achieved. Improvements in accounting standards, however, always make bank screening of borrowers less costly and improve credit allocation and social welfare. Copyright 2005 Royal Economic Society.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Zazzaro, 2005. "Should Courts Enforce Credit Contracts Strictly?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(500), pages 166-184, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecj:econjl:v:115:y:2005:i:500:p:166-184
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    1. Davide IACOVONI & Alberto ZAZZARO, 2000. "Legal System Efficiency, Information Production, and Technological Choice: A Banking Model," Working Papers 129, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
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    Cited by:

    1. Charles Yuji Horioka & Shizuka Sekita, 2009. "Are Fast Court Proceedings Good or Bad?: Evidence from Japanese Household Panel Data," Post-Print halshs-00407674, HAL.
    2. Hainz, Christa, 2007. "The Effect of Bank Competition on the Bank's Incentive to Collateralize," Discussion Papers in Economics 2007, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    3. Pietro Alessandrini & Andrea F. Presbitero & Alberto Zazzaro, 2009. "Banks, Distances and Firms' Financing Constraints," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 13(2), pages 261-307.
    4. Anyangah, Joshua O., 2017. "Creditor rights protection, tort claims and credit," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 29-43.
    5. Luca Papi & Emma Sarno & Alberto Zazzaro, 2017. "The geographical network of bank organizations: issues and evidence for Italy," Chapters, in: Ron Martin & Jane Pollard (ed.), Handbook on the Geographies of Money and Finance, chapter 8, pages 156-196, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Kalyvas, Antonios Nikolaos & Mamatzakis, Emmanuel, 2017. "Do creditor rights and information sharing affect the performance of foreign banks?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 13-35.
    7. Bing Xu, 2017. "Permissible collateral and access to finance: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Working Papers 1750, Banco de España.
    8. Régis Blazy & Bertrand Chopard & Agnès Fimayer, 2008. "Bankruptcy law: a mechanism of governance for financially distressed firms," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 253-267, June.
    9. Xu, Bing, 2018. "Permissible collateral and access to finance: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," BOFIT Discussion Papers 3/2018, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    10. Strauss, Jason David, 2008. "Uberrimae Fidei and Adverse Selection: the equitable legal judgment of Insurance Contracts," MPRA Paper 10874, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Eric Tassel, 2022. "Relationship Lending and Liquidation Under Imperfect Information," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 151-165, February.
    12. Xu, Bing, 2019. "Permissible collateral and access to finance: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 237-255.
    13. Kalyvas, Antonios Nikolaos & Mamatzakis, Emmanuel, 2014. "Does business regulation matter for banks in the European Union?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 278-324.
    14. Pietro ALESSANDRINI & Andrea PRESBITERO & Alberto ZAZZARO, 2006. "Banks, Distances and Financing Constraints for Firms," Working Papers 266, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    15. Giombini, Germana & Teobaldelli, Désirée & Schneider, Friedrich, 2018. "Interaction effect of tax evasion and legal system inefficiency on firms' financial constraints," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-20.
    16. Renato BALDUCCI, 2005. "Public Expenditure and Economic Growth. A critical extension of Barro's (1990) model," Working Papers 240, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • K41 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Litigation Process
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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