Concentração bancária e restrição de crédito para as micro e pequenas empresas no Brasil.

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the effect of the concentration of the banking system at the local level on the credit conditions and profitability of micro and small companies in Brazil. Part of the finance literature indicates that monopoly banking increases credit constraints for smaller firms. However, the creditor-debtor relationship literature indicates that large financial corporations improve credit conditions. Thus, there is no consensus among researchers about the impacts of monopoly power on access to credit. However, banking concentration and regional heterogeneity in Brazil favor the analysis of the effects of monopoly power on the financing conditions of micro and small companies at the municipal level. Given the literature and the economic and spatial characteristics of the Brazilian economy, a set of models will be estimated to explain the dynamics of credit for smaller companies. The first analyzes verify whether the monopoly power of banks has an impact on the credit conditions and profitability of micro and small companies. The results pointed to a greater rationing of credit to these firms. Given this evidence, the second analysis observed why banks do not relax credit restrictions in the face of the monopoly power of the sector. Therefore, the work verified the efficiency hypotheses of the banking and legal sectors. The indicators signaled to inefficiency indices of both banking and legal. However, the levels of inefficiency in the costs of the banks can be correlated to the spatial characteristics. The regional economics literature indicates that the spatial distance between the head office and the branch of financial institutions generates agency costs. Therefore, the results of the third stage showed that the increase in the distance between the main municipality and the bank branch raises credit costs. Therefore, the easing of credit conditions for micro and small companies in Brazil depends on greater competition between banks, combined with the development of the banking market at a regional level, as well as the improvement in the efficiency levels of the legal sector.