[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/keo/dpaper/2020-001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Bright and Dark Side of Financial Support from Local and Central Banks after a Natural Disaster: Evidence from the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923 Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Tetsuji Okazaki

    (Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo)

  • Toshihiro Okubo

    (Faculty of Economics, Keio University)

  • Eric Strobl

    (Department of Economics, Bern University)

Abstract
Natural disasters seriously damage firms and banks. The ability to finance recovery is a key factor for damaged firms to survive and grow after the event. However, small- and medium-sized firms are financially constrained and largely depend on local banks. In this paper, we focus on the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which resulted in serious damage to small- and medium-sized firms and banks in Yokohama City. The crucial solutions were the provision of loans by local banks as well as the Earthquake Bills policy implemented by the Bank of Japan. Using firm- and bank level datasets, we find that larger local banks allowed damaged firms to survive and grow. The policy by the Bank of Japan mitigated the negative impact of bank damage on firms and prevented credit crunch, although this deteriorated the balance sheet of local banks and resulted in financial instability and a banking crisis as a side effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Tetsuji Okazaki & Toshihiro Okubo & Eric Strobl, 2020. "The Bright and Dark Side of Financial Support from Local and Central Banks after a Natural Disaster: Evidence from the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923 Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2020-001, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    • Handle: RePEc:keo:dpaper:2020-001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ies.keio.ac.jp/upload/pdf/en/DP2020-001.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brewer, Elijah III & Genay, Hesna & Hunter, William Curt & Kaufman, George G., 2003. "The value of banking relationships during a financial crisis: Evidence from failures of Japanese banks," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 233-262, September.
    2. Cortés, Kristle Romero & Strahan, Philip E., 2017. "Tracing out capital flows: How financially integrated banks respond to natural disasters," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 182-199.
    3. Toshihiro Okubo & Eric Strobl, 2021. "Natural disasters, firm survival, and growth: Evidence from the Ise Bay Typhoon, Japan," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 944-970, November.
    4. Mariassunta Giannetti & Andrei Simonov, 2013. "On the Real Effects of Bank Bailouts: Micro Evidence from Japan," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 135-167, January.
    5. N. Berger, Allen & F. Udell, Gregory, 1998. "The economics of small business finance: The roles of private equity and debt markets in the financial growth cycle," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 613-673, August.
    6. Mihaela Craioveanu & Dek Terrell, 2016. "The Impact of Storms on Firm Survival: A Bayesian Spatial Econometric Model for Firm Survival," Advances in Econometrics, in: Spatial Econometrics: Qualitative and Limited Dependent Variables, volume 37, pages 81-118, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    7. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüč-Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2004. "Bank competition and access to finance: international evidence," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 627-654.
    8. Rehbein, Oliver, 2018. "Flooded through the back door: Firm-level effects of banks' lending shifts," IWH Discussion Papers 4/2018, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    9. Koetter, Michael & Noth, Felix & Rehbein, Oliver, 2020. "Borrowers under water! Rare disasters, regional banks, and recovery lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    10. Shin‐Ichi Fukuda & Satoshi Koibuchi, 2006. "The Impacts Of “Shock Therapy” Under A Banking Crisis: Experiences From Three Large Bank Failures In Japan," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 57(2), pages 232-256, June.
    11. Okazaki, Tetsuji & Okubo, Toshihiro & Strobl, Eric, 2019. "Creative Destruction of Industries: Yokohama City in the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(1), pages 1-31, March.
    12. Berger, Allen N. & Miller, Nathan H. & Petersen, Mitchell A. & Rajan, Raghuram G. & Stein, Jeremy C., 2005. "Does function follow organizational form? Evidence from the lending practices of large and small banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 237-269, May.
    13. Flath, David, 2014. "The Japanese Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 3, number 9780198702405.
    14. Berger, Allen N. & Udell, Gregory F., 2006. "A more complete conceptual framework for SME finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2945-2966, November.
    15. Yasushi Hamao & Takeo Hoshi & Tetsuji Okazaki, 2009. "Listing Policy and Development of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in the Pre-War Period," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Sector Development in the Pacific Rim, pages 51-87, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Olena Havrylchyk, 2016. "Incentivising Lending to Smes with the Funding for Lending Scheme: Some Evidence from Bank-Level Data in the United Kingdom," Working Papers hal-04141585, HAL.
    17. Tanaka, Ayumu, 2015. "The impacts of natural disasters on plants' growth: Evidence from the Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) earthquake," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 31-41.
    18. Puri, Manju & Rocholl, Jörg & Steffen, Sascha, 2011. "Global retail lending in the aftermath of the US financial crisis: Distinguishing between supply and demand effects," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 556-578, June.
    19. Allen N. Berger & Gregory F. Udell, 2002. "Small Business Credit Availability and Relationship Lending: The Importance of Bank Organisational Structure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages 32-53, February.
    20. Kaoru Hosono & Daisuke Miyakawa & Taisuke Uchino & Makoto Hazama & Arito Ono & Hirofumi Uchida & Iichiro Uesugi, 2016. "Natural Disasters, Damage To Banks, And Firm Investment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57, pages 1335-1370, November.
    21. Noy, Ilan & duPont IV, William, 2018. "The Long-Term Consequences of Disasters: What Do We Know, and What We Still Don't," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 12(4), pages 325-354, December.
    22. Uchida, Hirofumi & Udell, Gregory F. & Watanabe, Wako, 2008. "Bank size and lending relationships in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 242-267, June.
    23. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 1995. "The Effect of Credit Market Competition on Lending Relationships," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 407-443.
    24. Okuno-Fujiwara, Masahiro & Okazaki, Tetsuji (ed.), 1999. "The Japanese Economic System and its Historical Origins," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198289012.
    25. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç‐Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2005. "Financial and Legal Constraints to Growth: Does Firm Size Matter?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 137-177, February.
    26. Oliver Rehbein, 2018. "Flooded Through the Back Door: Firm-Level Effects of Banks' Lending Shifts," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2018_043v1, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    27. Asim Ijaz Khwaja & Atif Mian, 2008. "Tracing the Impact of Bank Liquidity Shocks: Evidence from an Emerging Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1413-1442, September.
    28. Boarnet, Marlon G., 1996. "Business Losses, Transportation Damage and the Northridge Earthquake," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt80w9g0rd, University of California Transportation Center.
    29. Chava, Sudheer & Purnanandam, Amiyatosh, 2011. "The effect of banking crisis on bank-dependent borrowers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 116-135, January.
    30. Okazaki, Tetsuji, 1993. "Change of Financial Market Structure and Financial Crisis in Prewar Japan," Economic Review, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 44(4), pages 300-310, October.
    31. Okazaki, Tetsuji & Sawada, Michiru & Yokoyama, Kazuki, 2005. "Measuring the Extent and Implications of Director Interlocking in the Prewar Japanese Banking Industry," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(4), pages 1082-1115, December.
    32. Cotugno, Matteo & Monferrà, Stefano & Sampagnaro, Gabriele, 2013. "Relationship lending, hierarchical distance and credit tightening: Evidence from the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1372-1385.
    33. Rajan, Raghuram G, 1992. "Insiders and Outsiders: The Choice between Informed and Arm's-Length Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1367-1400, September.
    34. Oliver Rehbein, 2018. "Flooded through the Back Door: Firm-Level Effects of Banks' Lending Shifts," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_043_2018, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    35. Enrico Sette & Giorgio Gobbi, 2015. "Relationship Lending During A Financial Crisis," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 453-481, June.
    36. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 2006. "Small and medium-size enterprises: Access to finance as a growth constraint," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2931-2943, November.
    37. Goodfriend, Marvin, 2011. "Central banking in the credit turmoil: An assessment of Federal Reserve practice," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 1-12, January.
    38. Sharpe, Steven A, 1990. "Asymmetric Information, Bank Lending, and Implicit Contracts: A Stylized Model of Customer Relationships," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1069-1087, September.
    39. Churm, Rohan & Joyce, Mike & Kapetanios, George & Theodoridis, Konstantinos, 2015. "Unconventional monetary policies and the macroeconomy: the impact of the United Kingdom's QE2 and Funding for Lending Scheme," Bank of England working papers 542, Bank of England.
    40. Andrea Leiter & Harald Oberhofer & Paul Raschky, 2009. "Creative Disasters? Flooding Effects on Capital, Labour and Productivity Within European Firms," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(3), pages 333-350, July.
    41. Azreen Karim & Ilan Noy, 2016. "Poverty And Natural Disasters — A Qualitative Survey Of The Empirical Literature," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 61(01), pages 1-36, March.
    42. Tetsuji Okazaki & Michiru Sawada, 2012. "Interbank networks in prewar Japan: structure and implications," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 21(2), pages 463-506, April.
    43. Oliver Rehbein, 2018. "Flooded through the Back Door: Firm-Level Effects of Banks' Lending Shifts," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2018_043, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    44. Slovin, Myron B & Sushka, Marie E & Polonchek, John A, 1993. "The Value of Bank Durability: Borrowers as Bank Stakeholders," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 247-266, March.
    45. Benjamin L. Collier & Volodymyr O. Babich, 2019. "Financing Recovery After Disasters: Explaining Community Credit Market Responses to Severe Events," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 86(2), pages 479-520, June.
    46. Philipp Schnabl, 2012. "The International Transmission of Bank Liquidity Shocks: Evidence from an Emerging Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 897-932, June.
    47. Berg, Gunhild & Schrader, Jan, 2012. "Access to credit, natural disasters, and relationship lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 549-568.
    48. Wang, Ling, 2016. "Unconventional monetary policy and aggregate bank lending: Does financial structure matter?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1060-1077.
    49. Kano, Masaji & Tsutsui, Yoshiro, 2003. "Geographical segmentation in Japanese bank loan markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 157-174, March.
    50. Boot, Arnoud W. A., 2000. "Relationship Banking: What Do We Know?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 7-25, January.
    51. Matthew A Cole & Robert J R Elliott & Toshihiro Okubo & Eric Strobl, 2019. "Natural disasters and spatial heterogeneity in damages: the birth, life and death of manufacturing plants," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 373-408.
    52. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March.
    53. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Liu, Yi & Strobl, Eric & Tong, Meng, 2019. "Estimating the direct and indirect impact of typhoons on plant performance: Evidence from Chinese manufacturers," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hunter, Janet, 2023. "Thinking about the economic consequences of the Great Kanto Earthquake," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124668, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tetsuji Okazaki & Toshihiro Okubo & Eric Strobl, 2024. "The Bright and Dark Sides of a Central Bank's Financial Support to Local Banks after a Natural Disaster: Evidence from the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923 Japan," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 56(6), pages 1439-1477, September.
    2. Hoffmann, Mathias & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2022. "‘By a silken thread’: Regional banking integration and credit reallocation during Japan's lost decade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Choudhary, M. Ali & Jain, Anil, 2022. "Finance and inequality: The distributional impacts of bank credit rationing," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    4. Berger, Allen N. & Klapper, Leora F. & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad & Zaidi, Rida, 2008. "Bank ownership type and banking relationships," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 37-62, January.
    5. Kano, Masaji & Uchida, Hirofumi & Udell, Gregory F. & Watanabe, Wako, 2011. "Information verifiability, bank organization, bank competition and bank-borrower relationships," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 935-954, April.
    6. Ferri, Giovanni & Murro, Pierluigi, 2015. "Do firm–bank ‘odd couples’ exacerbate credit rationing?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 231-251.
    7. Lončarski, Igor & Marinč, Matej, 2020. "The political economy of relationship banking," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    8. Ogane, Yuta, 2023. "The number of bank relationships and bank lending to informationally opaque SMEs," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    9. Berger, Allen N. & Molyneux, Phil & Wilson, John O.S., 2020. "Banks and the real economy: An assessment of the research," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Uchida, Hirofumi & Udell, Gregory F. & Yamori, Nobuyoshi, 2012. "Loan officers and relationship lending to SMEs," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 97-122.
    11. Beck, Thorsten & Degryse, Hans & De Haas, Ralph & van Horen, Neeltje, 2018. "When arm's length is too far: Relationship banking over the credit cycle," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 174-196.
    12. Cerqueiro, Geraldo & Degryse, Hans & Ongena, Steven, 2011. "Rules versus discretion in loan rate setting," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 503-529, October.
    13. Veronica Rappoport & Philipp Schnabl & Daniel Paravisini, 2015. "Comparative Advantage and Specialization in Bank Lending," 2015 Meeting Papers 499, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. Beatriz, Mikael & Coffinet, Jérôme & Nicolas, Théo, 2022. "Relationship lending and SMEs’ funding costs over the cycle: Why diversification of borrowing matters," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    15. Paravisini, Daniel & Rappoport, Veronica & Schnabl, Philipp, 2023. "Specialization in bank lending: evidence from exporting firms," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119458, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Ogura, Yoshiaki, 2012. "Lending competition and credit availability for new firms: Empirical study with the price cost margin in regional loan markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1822-1838.
    17. Berger, Allen N. & Boot, Arnoud W.A., 2024. "Financial intermediation services and competition analyses: Review and paths forward for improvement," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    18. Kaoru Hosono & Daisuke Miyakawa & Taisuke Uchino & Makoto Hazama & Arito Ono & Hirofumi Uchida & Iichiro Uesugi, 2016. "Natural Disasters, Damage To Banks, And Firm Investment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1335-1370, November.
    19. Norden, L., 2015. "The Role of Banks in SME Finance," ERIM Inaugural Address Series Research in Management EIA-2015-062-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam..
    20. Song Zhang & Liang Han & Konstantinos Kallias & Antonios Kallias, 2022. "Bank switching of US small businesses: new methods and evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1573-1616, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Great Kanto Earthquake; Earthquake Bills; Local Bank; Natural Disaster; Japan;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General
    • N25 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Asia including Middle East
    • N85 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - Asia including Middle East

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:keo:dpaper:2020-001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iekeijp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.