IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae09/50334.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Credit Constraints, Organizational Choice, and Returns to Capital: Evidence from a Rural Industrial Cluster in China

Author

Listed:
  • Ruan, Jianqing
  • Zhang, Xiaobo

Abstract

Traditional economic theory posits that a well functioning capital market is a necessary condition for industrialization and economic growth. However, in reality it is observed that micro and small enterprises are ubiquitous because entrepreneurs can set up business in low-return activities with minimal barriers to entry. Using a cashmere sweater cluster in China as an example, this paper shows that organizational choice can overcome the prohibitive cost of investment. Facing credit constraints, firms are more likely to concentrate in divisible production technologies in the form of industrial clusters. With clusters, a vertically integrated production process can be decomposed into many small incremental stages, making them more accessible for small entrepreneurs widely available in rural China, even without a well functioning capital market. The observed rate of returns to capital is closely related to the organizational choice under credit constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruan, Jianqing & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2009. "Credit Constraints, Organizational Choice, and Returns to Capital: Evidence from a Rural Industrial Cluster in China," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 50334, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae09:50334
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.50334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/50334/files/50334.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.50334?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shepherd, William G, 1972. "The Elements of Market Structure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 54(1), pages 25-37, February.
    2. Kui-Wai Li, 2003. "China's Capital and Productivity Measurement Using Financial Resources," Working Papers 851, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    3. Robert G. King & Ross Levine, 1993. "Finance and Growth: Schumpeter Might Be Right," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 717-737.
    4. Evans, David S & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1989. "An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 808-827, August.
    5. Banerjee, Abhijit V & Newman, Andrew F, 1993. "Occupational Choice and the Process of Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(2), pages 274-298, April.
    6. Meghana Ayyagari & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2008. "How Important Are Financing Constraints? The Role of Finance in the Business Environment," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 483-516, November.
    7. McKenzie, David J & Woodruff, Christopher, 2006. "Do Entry Costs Provide an Empirical Basis for Poverty Traps? Evidence from Mexican Microenterprises," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 3-42, October.
    8. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1998. "Financial Dependence and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 559-586, June.
    9. Abhijit Banerjee & Kaivan Munshi, 2004. "How Efficiently is Capital Allocated? Evidence from the Knitted Garment Industry in Tirupur," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(1), pages 19-42.
    10. Jianqing Ruan & Xiaobo Zhang, 2009. "Finance and Cluster-Based Industrial Development in China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(1), pages 143-164, October.
    11. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & Todd Mitton, 2005. "Determinants of Vertical Integration: Finance, Contracts, and Regulation," NBER Working Papers 11424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Dhawan, Rajeev, 2001. "Firm size and productivity differential: theory and evidence from a panel of US firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 269-293, March.
    13. Huang, Zuhui & Zhang, Xiaobo & Zhu, Yunwei, 2008. "The role of clustering in rural industrialization: A case study of the footwear industry in Wenzhou," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 409-420, September.
    14. repec:bla:devpol:v:24:y:2006:i:3:p:279-302 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Mead, Donald C. & Liedholm, Carl, 1998. "The dynamics of micro and small enterprises in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 61-74, January.
    16. Leff, Nathaniel H, 1978. "Industrial Organization and Entrepreneurship in the Developing Countries: The Economic Groups," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(4), pages 661-675, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Natasha Agarwal & Chris Milner & Alejandro Riaño, 2011. "Credit Constraints and FDI Spillovers in China," Discussion Papers 11/21, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    2. Xu, Chenggang & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2009. "The evolution of Chinese entrepreneurial firms: Township-village enterprises revisited," IFPRI discussion papers 854, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Merima Ali & Jack Peerlings & Xiaobo Zhang, 2014. "Clustering as an organizational response to capital market inefficiency: evidence from microenterprises in Ethiopia," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 697-709, October.

    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. Ayele, Gezahegn & Moorman, Lisa & Wamisho, Kassu & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2010. "Infrastructure and cluster development," IFPRI discussion papers 980, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Merima Ali & Jack Peerlings & Xiaobo Zhang, 2014. "Clustering as an organizational response to capital market inefficiency: evidence from microenterprises in Ethiopia," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 697-709, October.
    3. Long, Cheryl & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2011. "Cluster-based industrialization in China: Financing and performance," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 112-123, May.
    4. Jianqing Ruan & Xiaobo Zhang, 2009. "Finance and Cluster-Based Industrial Development in China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(1), pages 143-164, October.
    5. Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Ross Levine, 2009. "Finance and Inequality: Theory and Evidence," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 287-318, November.
    6. Martijn Boermans & Daan Willebrands, 2012. "Financial constraints, risk taking and firm performance: Recent evidence from microfinance clients in Tanzania," DNB Working Papers 358, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    7. Marco Vivarelli, 2013. "Is entrepreneurship necessarily good? Microeconomic evidence from developed and developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(6), pages 1453-1495, December.
    8. Francisco J. Buera & Joseph P. Kaboski & Yongseok Shin, 2015. "Entrepreneurship and Financial Frictions: A Macrodevelopment Perspective," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 409-436, August.
    9. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 2006. "Finance and economic development : policy choices for developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3955, The World Bank.
    10. Sanjay Banerji & Rajesh S. N. Raj & Kunal Sen, 2016. "Monitoring Costs, Credit Constraints and Entrepreneurship," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(5), pages 573-599, September.
    11. Ali, Merima & Peerlings, Jack & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2010. "Clustering as an organizational response to capital market inefficiency: Evidence from handloom enterprises in Ethiopia," IFPRI discussion papers 1045, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Vivarelli, Marco, 2012. "Drivers of entrepreneurship and post-entry performance : microeconomic evidence from advanced and developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6245, The World Bank.
    13. Maitreesh Ghatak & Massimo Morelli & Tomas Sjoström, 2001. "Credit rationing, wealth inequality, and allocation of talent," ICER Working Papers - Applied Mathematics Series 23-2001, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    14. Dodlova, Marina & Göbel, Kristin & Grimm, Michael & Lay, Jann, 2015. "Constrained firms, not subsistence activities: Evidence on capital returns and accumulation in Peruvian microenterprises," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 94-110.
    15. Nwakego Eyisi & Hyacinth E. Ichoku & Asma Kanwal, 2024. "Front-end Innovation and Top Income Inequality: Evidence from Emerging Markets," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 1437-1481, March.
    16. Cosimo Magazzino & Marco Mele & Fabio Gaetano Santeramo, 2021. "Using an Artificial Neural Networks Experiment to Assess the Links among Financial Development and Growth in Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-15, March.
    17. Kerr, William R. & Nanda, Ramana, 2009. "Democratizing entry: Banking deregulations, financing constraints, and entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 124-149, October.
    18. Foellmi, Reto & Oechslin, Manuel, 2010. "Market imperfections, wealth inequality, and the distribution of trade gains," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 15-25, May.
    19. Poschke, Markus, 2013. "The Decision to Become an Entrepreneur and the Firm Size Distribution: A Unifying Framework for Policy Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 7757, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7079 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Abdelkrim Araar & Yesuf Mohammednur Awel & Jonse Bane Boka & Hiywot Menker & Ajebush Shafi & Eleni Yitbarek & Mulatu Zerihun, 2019. "Impact of Credit and Training on Enterprise Performance: Evidence from Urban Ethiopia," Working Papers PMMA 2019-13, PEP-PMMA.

    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:ags:iaae09:50334. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.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.