We study how an employment-related outside option affects equilibrium properties of credit markets plagued with asymmetric information, when returns to entrepreneurial ventures are ranked by first-order stochastic dominance. While greater separation of expected payoffs in paid employment than in entrepreneurship may involve credit rationing or market breakdown, a lemons problem in the outside option may produce multiple competitive equilibria, each featuring favorable selection in the credit market. Under these circumstances, informational asymmetries will not prevent high-ability individuals from pursuing entrepreneurship and yet induce more investment than is socially efficient. This prediction is consistent with recent empirical evidence on the relative importance of rationing vis-à-vis over-provision for credit seeking, informationally opaque firms.

Outside (option) in the orchard: lemons or peaches?

DI PIETRO, CHRISTIAN;SORGE, Marco Maria
2018-01-01

Abstract

We study how an employment-related outside option affects equilibrium properties of credit markets plagued with asymmetric information, when returns to entrepreneurial ventures are ranked by first-order stochastic dominance. While greater separation of expected payoffs in paid employment than in entrepreneurship may involve credit rationing or market breakdown, a lemons problem in the outside option may produce multiple competitive equilibria, each featuring favorable selection in the credit market. Under these circumstances, informational asymmetries will not prevent high-ability individuals from pursuing entrepreneurship and yet induce more investment than is socially efficient. This prediction is consistent with recent empirical evidence on the relative importance of rationing vis-à-vis over-provision for credit seeking, informationally opaque firms.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/4718548
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