An Interpretation of Discouraged Borrowers Based on Relationship Lending

Working Paper

Vincent Chandler, Small Business Branch, Industry Canada

August 2010

Table of Contents

• I. Introduction
• II. Theory and Previous Evidence
• III. Data and Descriptive Statistics
• IV. Methodology
  • A) Relationship with Manager/Bank
  • B) Business Characteristics
  • C) Owner Characteristics
  • D) Control Variables
• V. Empirical Results
  • A) Discouraged Borrowers versus Applicants
    • 1. Relationship with the Financial Institution
    • 2. Characteristics of the Firm
    • 3. Characteristics of the Owner
  • B) Discouraged versus Denied and Approved Borrowers
    • 1. Relationship with the Financial Institution
    • 2. Characteristics of the Firm
• VI. Conclusion
• Bibliography

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank David Storey, Denis Martel, Sascha Wiessmeyer and Richard Archambault for helpful comments.

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of discouragement for Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using firm-level data originating from the SME Financing Data Initiative (SME FDI) 2004. We partially confirm the idea that discouraged borrowers are generally riskier than applicants. Furthermore, we find some evidence that discouraged borrowers have stronger relationships with their financial institution than do denied borrowers. In that sense, discouraged borrowers have better information on themselves and on their financial intermediary and can thus more realistically assess their chances of acceptance. Consequently, they decide not to apply because they are aware of their higher risk.

JEL Classification: G14, G21