Tests of Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Theories of Collateral Using Private and Public Information
European Banking Center Discussion Paper No. 2010-01
CentER Discussion Paper Series No. 2010-13
29 Pages Posted: 19 Feb 2010
There are 2 versions of this paper
Tests of Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Theories of Collateral Using Private and Public Information
Tests of Ex Ante versus Ex Post Theories of Collateral Using Private and Public Information
Date Written: December 31, 2009
Abstract
Collateral is a widely used, but not well understood, debt contracting feature. Two broad strands of theoretical literature explain collateral as arising from the existence of either ex ante private information or ex post incentive problems between borrowers and lenders. However, the extant empirical literature has been unable to isolate each of these effects. This paper attempts to do so using a credit registry that is unique in that it allows the researcher to have access to some private information about borrower risk that is unobserved by the lender. The data also includes public information about borrower risk, loan contract terms, and ex post performance for both secured and unsecured loans. The results suggest that the ex post theories of collateral are empirically dominant, although the ex ante theories are also valid for customers with short borrower-lender relationships that are relatively unknown to the lender.
Keywords: Collateral, Asymmetric Information, Banks
JEL Classification: G21, D82, G38
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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