This paper studies an economy in which firms can operate either a mature or a new technology and lenders acquire information on the productive assets of the borrowing firms that are eligible as collateral. We demonstrate that when contracts are imperfectly enforceable informed lenders offer inexpensive funding for the mature technology but may choose not to finance the new one, seeking to preserve the value of their information on the mature assets. Using firm-level data from Italy, we find that banks that establish long-term relationships with firms promote technological progress on average. However, we find that relationship banks inhibit innovations that entail a large depreciation of existing technology-specific information such as radical innovations.

In emerging economies, institutional and regulatory constraints can distort loan contracting and, hence, the incentives of lenders and borrowers. Studying the South Korean syndicated loan market, we find that during the 90s the safety net protecting business groups (chaebols)—especially the government’s bailout policy—affected the structure and pricing of loans to chaebol firms. However, after the chaebol reform of the late 90s dismantled the chaebol safety net, the differences in loan contracts between chaebol and non-chaebol firms narrowed or disappeared. The results suggest that the reform restored lenders’ incentives to monitor chaebol firms and properly assess their risk.