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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 60 2015

As told by the supplier: Trade credit and the cross section of stock returns

Shingo Goto1; Gang Xiao2,3; Yan Xu4

1 University of South Carolina · 2 Institute of Economics · 3 Renmin University of China · 4 University of Hong Kong

Abstract

With superior information about their customers’ prospects, suppliers extend trade credit to capture future profitable business. We show that this information advantage generates significant return predictability. After controlling for major firm characteristics, firms that rely more on trade credit relative to debt financing have higher subsequent stock returns. The return predictability by trade credit is stronger among firms with lower borrowing capacity or profitability, and is more significant for firms with a higher degree of information asymmetry. Our findings suggest that trade credit extension reveals suppliers’ information that diffuses gradually across the investing public.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2015.08.030
Volume
60
Pages
296-309
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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