Credit Guarantees and Subsidies when Lender has a Market Power

Provision of credit guarantees or subsidies may remove an adverse selection leading to credit rationing. This paper concentrates on comparison of government budget costs of credit guarantees and subsidies in a monopolistic credit market. Di?erent opportunity costs among entrepreneurs, which re?ect di?erent mixes of general and human speci?c capital, generate di?erent outcomes in the model. As long as the participation costs of low-risk entrepreneurs are su?ciently close to the participation costs of high-risk entrepreneurs, the budget-cost minimizing government should prefer guarantees over interest rate subsidies as an intervention instrument.