Budget constraint

About: Budget constraint is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3267 publications have been published within this topic receiving 68063 citations. The topic is also known as: budget constraint line.

Incentive-Compatible Debt Contracts: The One-Period Problem

Abstract: In a simple model of borrowing and lending with asymmetric information we show that the optimal, incentive-compatible debt contract is the standard debt contract. The second-best level of investment never exceeds the first-best and is strictly less when there is a positive probability of costly bankruptcy. We also compare the second-best with the results of interest-rate-taking behaviour and consider the effects of risk aversion. Finally we provide conditions under which increasing the borrower's initial net wealth must reduce total investment in the venture. A great deal of effort has recently gone into the study of implicit contract models (ICM) in an attempt to explain the failure of competitive labour markets to generate efficient levels of employment. (See Hart, 1983, for a survey of this work and further references). Relatively little attention has been given to the theoretical analysis of capital market imperfections, a phenomenon we believe to be at least as important as labour market imperfections when it comes to explaining the inefficient use of resources, including "unemployment". In this paper we seek to fill this gap by analysing a model of credit contracts between firms that need outside finance in order to operate efficiently on the one hand and the institutions that provide the money on the other. We were led to this problem by our current interest in the question of what is the firm's budget constraint? In economies with complete markets, of course, this question does not arise in a meaningful form. But when markets are incomplete the firm does face a budget constraint of some sort at each date and the form of this constraint may crucially affect its behaviour. There is no intrinsic virtue in a budget constraint which requires the firm to repay all debts with probability one and, in fact, most legal systems allow for some insurance, in the form of bankruptcy, against low income states. Perhaps the central message of our work is simply that the question of the firm's budget constraint should be formulated as a contract problem. And under certain conditions, the form of the optimal budget constraint is the same as the standard debt contract with bankruptcy. But there is more to the analysis than that. We are naturally interested not only in the shape of the firm's budget constraint but also in its position. In other words, is there credit-rationing?

Incentive-compatible debt contracts: The one-period problem

Abstract: In a simple model of borrowing and lending with asymmetric information we show that the optimal, incentive-compatible debt contract is the standard debt contract. The second-best level of investment never exceeds the first-best and is strictly less when there is a positive probability of costly bankruptcy. We also compare the second-best with the results of interest-rate-taking behaviour and consider the effects of risk aversion. Finally we provide conditions under which increasing the borrower's initial net wealth must reduce total investment in the venture. A great deal of effort has recently gone into the study of implicit contract models (ICM) in an attempt to explain the failure of competitive labour markets to generate efficient levels of employment. (See Hart, 1983, for a survey of this work and further references). Relatively little attention has been given to the theoretical analysis of capital market imperfections, a phenomenon we believe to be at least as important as labour market imperfections when it comes to explaining the inefficient use of resources, including "unemployment". In this paper we seek to fill this gap by analysing a model of credit contracts between firms that need outside finance in order to operate efficiently on the one hand and the institutions that provide the money on the other. We were led to this problem by our current interest in the question of what is the firm's budget constraint? In economies with complete markets, of course, this question does not arise in a meaningful form. But when markets are incomplete the firm does face a budget constraint of some sort at each date and the form of this constraint may crucially affect its behaviour. There is no intrinsic virtue in a budget constraint which requires the firm to repay all debts with probability one and, in fact, most legal systems allow for some insurance, in the form of bankruptcy, against low income states. Perhaps the central message of our work is simply that the question of the firm's budget constraint should be formulated as a contract problem. And under certain conditions, the form of the optimal budget constraint is the same as the standard debt contract with bankruptcy. But there is more to the analysis than that. We are naturally interested not only in the shape of the firm's budget constraint but also in its position. In other words, is there credit-rationing?

The soft budget constraint

Abstract: The author’s ideas on the soft budget constraint (SBC) were first expressed in 1976. Much progress has been made in understanding the problem over the ensuing four decades. The study takes issue with those who confine the concept to the process of bailing out loss-making socialist firms. It shows how the syndrome can appear in various organizations and forms in many spheres of the economy and points to the various means available for financial rescue. Single bailouts do not as such generate the SBC syndrome. It develops where the SBC becomes built into expectations. Special heed is paid to features generated by the syndrome in rescuer and rescuee organizations. The study reports on the spread of the syndrome in various periods of the socialist and the capitalist system, in various sectors. The author expresses his views on normative questions and on therapies against the harmful effects. He deals first with actual practice, then places the theory of the SBC in the sphere of ideas and models, showing how it relates to other theoretical trends, including institutional and behavioural economics and theories of moral hazard and inconsistency in time. He shows how far the intellectual apparatus of the SBC has spread in theoretical literature and where it has reached in the process of “canonization” by the economics profession. Finally, he reviews the main research tasks ahead.

Credit and Efficiency in Centralized and Decentralized Economies

Abstract: We study a credit model where, because of adverse selection, unprofitable projects may nevertheless be financed. Indeed they may continue to be financed even when shown to be low-quality if sunk costs have already been incurred. We show that credit decentralization offers a way for creditors to commit not to refinance such projects, thereby discouraging entrepreneurs from undertaking them initially. Thus, decentralization provides financial discipline. Nevertheless, we argue that it puts too high a premium on short-term returns. The model seems pertinent to two issues: "soft budget constraint" problems in centralized economies, and differences between "Anglo-Saxon" and "German-Japanese" financing practices.