Suchergebnisse

We review studies of the impact of credit constraints on the accumulation of human capital. Evidence suggests that credit constraints have recently become important for schooling and other aspects of households' behavior. We highlight the importance of early childhood investments, since their response largely determines the impact of credit constraints on the overall lifetime acquisition of human capital. We also review the intergenerational literature and examine the macroeconomic impacts of credit constraints on social mobility and the income distribution. A common limitation across all areas of the human capital literature is the imposition of ad hoc constraints on credit. We propose a more careful treatment of the structure of government student loan programs and the incentive problems underlying private credit. We show that endogenizing constraints on credit for human capital helps explain observed borrowing, schooling, and default patterns and offers new insights about the design of government policy.

Low college enrollment rates among low income students may stem from credit constraints, low academic skill, low quality schools, or some combination of these. Recent Massachusetts data allow the first use of school district fixed effects in the analysis of credit constraints, leading to four primary findings. First, Massachusetts' low income students have lower intended college enrollment rates than higher income students but also have dramatically lower skills and attend lower quality school districts. Second, inclusion of skill controls greatly reduces but does not eliminate the intended enrollment gap, with low income students seven percentage points less likely to intend enrollment than similarly skilled higher income students. Third, in districts where higher income students are plausibly unconstrained, inclusion of school district fixed effects does little to reduce intended enrollment gaps, with low income students nine percentage points less likely to intend enrollment than similarly skilled higher income students from the same school district. Fourth, low income students in the middle and upper parts of the skill distribution appear the most constrained, particularly with respect to four-year public colleges. State governments could use the methods employed here to identify credit constrained student populations in order to target financial aid more efficiently.

We provide a theory of rational stock price bubbles in production economies with infinitely-lived agents. Firms meet stochastic investment opportunities and face endogenous credit constraints. They are not fully committed to repaying debt. Credit constraints are derived from incentive constraints in optimal contracts which ensure default never occurs in equilibrium. Stock price bubbles can emerge through a positive feedback loop mechanism and cannot be ruled out by transversality conditions. These bubbles command a liquidity premium and raise investment by raising the debt limit. Their collapse leads to a recession and a stock market crash. (JEL D25, E22, E32, E44, G12, G14)

Abstract
This paper demonstrates that credit constraints can lead to the inability to enforce contracts, thereby creating inefficiency. If time elapses between the contract period and the enforcement period, a credit constrained agent that uses the proceeds of trade to fund consumption faces a greater cost to enforce a contract than an unconstrained agent. This allows the other party to a contract to hold up the credit constrained agent, thereby creating inefficiency. This is demonstrated for two types of enforcement mechanisms; enforcement of a one-time trade via the courts, and enforcement of a long-term trade via a punishment strategy.

AbstractThis paper incorporates credit constraints into a model of global sourcing and heterogeneous firms. Following Antràs and Helpman, heterogeneous firms decide whether to outsource or integrate input suppliers. Financing of fixed organizational costs requires borrowing with credit constraints and collateral based on tangible assets. The party that controls intermediate inputs is responsible for these financing costs. Sectors differ in their reliance on external finance and countries vary in their financial development. The model predicts that increased financial development decreases the share of integration relative to outsourcing in a country. The effect is more pronounced in sectors with a high reliance on external finance. However, this effect is mitigated by higher productivity (TFP) and headquarter intensity. Empirical examination confirms the predictions of the model. An improvement in financial development from the 25th to the 75th percentile in industries at the 75th percentile in finance dependence relative to those at the 25th percentile is associated with a 16.8% decrease in the median share of US intra‐firm imports. An increase in TFP from the 25th to the 75th percentile in the TFP triple interactions increase the share of US intra‐firm imports at the median by 3.2%. An increase in headquarter intensity from the 25th to the 75th percentile in the headquarter intensity triple interactions increase the share of US intra‐firm imports at the median by 21%.

We estimate the probability of voluntary job change using data
from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and imputed values
for several different measures of financial stress from the Survey
of Consumer Finances (SCF). Our main finding is that single men are
more likely to respond to credit constraints by voluntarily switching
jobs. For married men, the effect depends on the type of financial
stress experienced. Our results suggest that the higher rate of job mobility
among single men can be attributed to both higher incidence of
credit constraints among this group as well as a differential response
to these constraints.

This paper examines the relationship between aggregate consumer spending and credit availability in the United States. The author finds that consumer spending falls (rises) in response to a reduction (increase) in credit availability. Moreover, she provides a formal assessment of the possibility that credit availability is particularly important for consumer spending when it undergoes large changes. In this respect, she estimates a consumption function in which only large expansions and contractions in credit affect spending. She concludes that large changes in credit availability are particularly important for consumers' spending decisions. As should be expected, these periods tend to be associated with periods of high economic uncertainty. These results show that credit availability should be taken into account when modeling and forecasting consumer spending. -- Credit and credit aggregates ; Domestic demand and components ; Recent economic and financial developments