授信额度与投资效率

Lines of Credit and Investment Efficiency

作为一种重要的融资方式和外部流动性来源,银行授信额度对公司的经营和流动性管理越来越重要。但并不是所有的企业在获得授信额度以后,都能对其加以有效的利用。本文研究发现,总体来说银行授信的确有缓解融资约束,提高投资效率的功能,但在融资约束越小,公司治理质量越差,政企关系越强的企业中,授信额度的利用效率(即对投资效率的提升作用)越低。本文的研究结果在一定程度上表明,银行授信固然有缓解融资约束的作用,但在代理成本较高的企业中也可能引起过度投资和投资效率的扭曲。

As an important means of financing and external sources of liquidity, the bank lines of credit play an increasingly important role in the firms＇ operations and liquidity management. However, not all firms can use lines of credit efficiently after they obtain them. This paper empirically verifies that in general the access to lines of credit can mitigate the firms＇ financing constraints and improve investment efficiency. However, for those firms facing fewer financing constraints, with poorer quality of corporate governance or stronger political connections, the access to bank lines of credit is less likely to promote investment efficiency. The results of this study indicate to some extent that, the bank lines of credit not only play a role in easing financing constraints, but may also cause over-investment and efficiency distortions for firms with higher agency costs.