IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/amu/wpaper/2014-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Credit Relationships and Business Bankruptcy During the Great Depression

Author

Listed:
  • Mary Eschelbach Hansen
  • Nicolas L. Ziebarth

Abstract

Credit relationships are sticky. Stickiness makes relationships beneficial for borrowers in distress, but potentially problematic for them when lenders face distress. To examine stickiness in a time of distress, we exploit a natural experiment during the Depression that generated differences in banking outcomes. Using a new dataset from Dun & Bradstreet and original bankruptcy filings, we show that greater distress increased exit by up to 16 percent. Distress did not generate more bankruptcies, but it changed the geographical distribution of creditors of bankrupt businesses. This is consistent with a contraction of business-to-business credit where there was greater distress.

Suggested Citation

  • Mary Eschelbach Hansen & Nicolas L. Ziebarth, 2014. "Credit Relationships and Business Bankruptcy During the Great Depression," Working Papers 2014-11, American University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:amu:wpaper:2014-11
    DOI: 10.17606/jyfm-rt92
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17606/jyfm-rt92
    File Function: First version, 2014
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17606/jyfm-rt92?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. Odell, Kerry A. & Weiman, David F., 1998. "Metropolitan Development, Regional Financial Centers, and the Founding of the Fed in the Lower South," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(1), pages 103-125, March.
    2. Ricardo J. Caballero & Takeo Hoshi & Anil K. Kashyap, 2008. "Zombie Lending and Depressed Restructuring in Japan," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1943-1977, December.
    3. Ongena, Steven & Tümer-Alkan, Günseli & Westernhagen, Natalja v., 2012. "Creditor concentration: An empirical investigation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 830-847.
    4. Hansen, Bradley, 1998. "Commercial Associations and the Creation of a National Economy: The Demand for Federal Bankruptcy Law," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(1), pages 86-113, April.
    5. Jalil, Andrew J., 2014. "Monetary Intervention Really Did Mitigate Banking Panics During the Great Depression: Evidence Along the Atlanta Federal Reserve District Border," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(1), pages 259-273, March.
    6. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1992. "Liquidation Values and Debt Capacity: A Market Equilibrium Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1343-1366, September.
    7. David Hammes, 2001. "Locating Federal Reserve districts and headquarters cities," The Region, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 15(Sep), pages 24-27,55-65.
    8. Gary Richardson & William Troost, 2009. "Monetary Intervention Mitigated Banking Panics during the Great Depression: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from a Federal Reserve District Border, 1929-1933," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(6), pages 1031-1073, December.
    9. Wicker,Elmus, 1996. "The Banking Panics of the Great Depression," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521562614, October.
    10. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:5:p:1443-1493 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Charles W. Calomiris & Joseph R. Mason, 2003. "Consequences of Bank Distress During the Great Depression," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 937-947, June.
    12. John V. Duca, 2013. "The Money Market Meltdown of the Great Depression," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(2-3), pages 493-504, March.
    13. Arturo Bris & Ivo Welch, 2005. "The Optimal Concentration of Creditors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(5), pages 2193-2212, October.
    14. Bolton, Patrick & Scharfstein, David S, 1996. "Optimal Debt Structure and the Number of Creditors," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 1-25, February.
    15. Luigi Guiso & Raoul Minetti, 2010. "The Structure of Multiple Credit Relationships: Evidence from U.S. Firms," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(6), pages 1037-1071, September.
    16. Paul Asquith & Robert Gertner & David Scharfstein, 1994. "Anatomy of Financial Distress: An Examination of Junk-Bond Issuers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 625-658.
    17. Lipartito, Kenneth, 2013. "Mediating Reputation: Credit Reporting Systems in American History," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(4), pages 655-677, January.
    18. Acharya, Viral V. & Bharath, Sreedhar T. & Srinivasan, Anand, 2007. "Does industry-wide distress affect defaulted firms? Evidence from creditor recoveries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 787-821, September.
    19. Kris James Mitchener & Gary Richardson, 2013. "Shadowy Banks and Financial Contagion during the Great Depression: A Retrospective on Friedman and Schwartz," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 73-78, May.
    20. Hansen, Mary Eschelbach & Hansen, Bradley A., 2012. "Crisis and Bankruptcy: The Mediating Role of State Law, 1920–1932," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 448-468, May.
    21. Gary Richardson, 2006. "Quarterly Data on the Categories and Causes of Bank Distress During the Great Depression," NBER Working Papers 12715, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich, 2014. "The Employment Effects of Credit Market Disruptions: Firm-level Evidence from the 2008-9 Financial Crisis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 1-59.
    23. Hansen, Bradley A. & Hansen, Mary Eschelbach, 2007. "The role of path dependence in the development of US bankruptcy law, 1880–1938," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 203-225, August.
    24. Nicolas L. Ziebarth, 2013. "Identifying the Effects of Bank Failures from a Natural Experiment in Mississippi during the Great Depression," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 81-101, January.
    25. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich, "undated". "The Employment Effects of Credit Market Disruptions: Firm-level Evidence from the 2008-09 Financial Crisis," Working Paper 90811, Harvard University OpenScholar.
    26. Bernanke, Ben S, 1983. "Nonmonetary Effects of the Financial Crisis in Propagation of the Great Depression," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(3), pages 257-276, June.
    27. Sreedhar T. Bharath & Tyler Shumway, 2008. "Forecasting Default with the Merton Distance to Default Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 1339-1369, May.
    28. Nber, 1938. "Program of Research," NBER Chapters, in: Report of the Committee on Prices in the Bituminous Coal Industry, pages 29-76, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. Richard Hornbeck & Suresh Naidu, 2014. "When the Levee Breaks: Black Migration and Economic Development in the American South," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(3), pages 963-990, March.
    30. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March.
    31. Gary Richardson & Michael Gou, 2011. "Business Failures by Industry in the United States, 1895 to 1939: A Statistical History," NBER Working Papers 16872, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Basker, Emek & Vickers, Chris & Ziebarth, Nicolas L., 2018. "Competition, productivity, and survival of grocery stores in the Great Depression," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 282-315.
    2. Elena Cefis & Cristina Bettinelli & Alex Coad & Orietta Marsili, 2022. "Understanding firm exit: a systematic literature review," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 423-446, August.
    3. XU Peng, 2021. "Population Aging and Small Business Exits," Discussion papers 21091, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Nicolas L. Ziebarth, 2015. "The Great Depression Through the Eyes of the Census of Manufactures," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(4), pages 185-194, October.
    5. Goel, Manisha & Zemel, Michelle, 2018. "Switching to bonds when loans are scarce: Evidence from four U.S. crises," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-27.
    6. Breitenlechner, Max & Mathy, Gabriel P. & Scharler, Johann, 2021. "Decomposing the U.S. Great Depression: How important were loan supply shocks?," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Dongping Xie & Mary Eschelbach Hansen, 2020. "Supply of bank loans and business debts: A view from historical bankruptcy cases," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(S1), pages 170-187, March.

    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. Nicolas L. Ziebarth, 2013. "Identifying the Effects of Bank Failures from a Natural Experiment in Mississippi during the Great Depression," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 81-101, January.
    2. Dongping Xie & Mary Eschelbach Hansen, 2020. "Supply of bank loans and business debts: A view from historical bankruptcy cases," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(S1), pages 170-187, March.
    3. Manasa Gopal, 2021. "How Collateral Affects Small Business Lending: The Role of Lender Specialization," Working Papers 21-22, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Benmelech, Efraim & Frydman, Carola & Papanikolaou, Dimitris, 2019. "Financial frictions and employment during the Great Depression," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(3), pages 541-563.
    5. Breitenlechner, Max & Mathy, Gabriel P. & Scharler, Johann, 2021. "Decomposing the U.S. Great Depression: How important were loan supply shocks?," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Paravisini, Daniel & Rappoport, Veronica & Schnabl, Philipp, 2023. "Specialization in bank lending: evidence from exporting firms," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119458, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Gaku, Sylvanus A. & Ifft, Jennifer & Byers, Luke, 2022. "Farm Loan Concentration and Financial Risk," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322568, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Giacinto Micucci & Paola Rossi, 2017. "Debt Restructuring and the Role of Banks’ Organizational Structure and Lending Technologies," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 51(3), pages 339-361, June.
    9. Amanda Carmignani & Massimo Omiccioli, 2007. "Costs and benefits of creditor concentration: An empirical approach," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 645, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    10. Salvador Contreras & Manthos D. Delis & Amit Ghosh & Iftekhar Hasan, 2022. "Bank failures, local business dynamics, and government policy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1823-1851, April.
    11. Jenter, Dirk & Aldunate, Felipe & Korteweg, Arthur & Koudijs, Peter, 2021. "Shareholder Liability and Bank Failure," CEPR Discussion Papers 16309, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Pooyan Amir-Ahmadi & Gustavo S. Cortes & Marc D. Weidenmier, 2020. "Regional Monetary Policies and the Great Depression," NBER Working Papers 26695, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Duygan-Bump, Burcu & Levkov, Alexey & Montoriol-Garriga, Judit, 2015. "Financing constraints and unemployment: Evidence from the Great Recession," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 89-105.
    14. Kilian Huber, 2015. "The Persistence of a Banking Crisis," Discussion Papers 1532, Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM).
    15. Ongena, Steven & Tümer-Alkan, Günseli & Westernhagen, Natalja v., 2012. "Creditor concentration: An empirical investigation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 830-847.
    16. Jon Cohen & Kinda Hachem & Gary Richardson, 2021. "Relationship Lending and the Great Depression," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(3), pages 505-520, July.
    17. Tedeschi, Gabriele & Vidal-Tomás, David & Delli-Gatti, Domenico & Gallegati, Mauro, 2021. "The macroeconomic effects of default and debt restructuring: An agent based exploration," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1146-1163.
    18. Masami Imai & Tetsuji Okazaki & Michiru Sawada, 2022. "The effects of lender of last resort on financial intermediation during the great depression in Japan [Ginko Hatan gaoyobosu Densenkoka no Bunseki (The analyses of the effect of contagion caused by," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(3), pages 448-478.
    19. Pavanini, Nicola & Ioannidou, Vasso & Peng, Yushi, 2019. "Collateral and Asymmetric Information in Lending Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 13905, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Kris James Mitchener & Gary Richardson, 2019. "Network Contagion and Interbank Amplification during the Great Depression," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(2), pages 465-507.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • N12 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • N22 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • N82 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:amu:wpaper:2014-11. 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: Thomas Meal (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/ .

    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.