Corporate Overconfidence and Bank Lending
68 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2021 Last revised: 25 Jan 2022
There are 2 versions of this paper
Corporate Overconfidence and Bank Lending
Corporate Optimism and Bank Lending
Date Written: January 25, 2022
Abstract
We study the role of banks in amplifying the economic impact of biases in managerial beliefs. For identification, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in pupils' overconfidence across areas in Italy. Overconfident managers systematically overestimate future sales, and are more likely to default. Banks are more likely to deny credit to overconfident managers, but only for loans that cannot be easily collateralized. Results hold in a sample of movers (managers working in a different province from where they were born). Overconfident managers invest more when they borrow from collateral-based banks.
Keywords: overconfidence; business expectations; loan applications; borrower default; collateral requirements
JEL Classification: G41, G21
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation