The Use of Trade Credit by Firms: Evidence for Latin America

Abstract

Trade Credit (TC) is the short-term credit linked to the sale of goods given to the cliente by the supplier without any intermediary financial agent. This work aims to study whether TC is used as a substitute for bank credit in crisis periods in Latin America. The sample of this study was composed of firms listed on the Argentinian, Brazilian and Mexican stock exchanges from 1994 to 2009. Controlled by sector and size, the tests provide evidence of the substitution effect for these three countries firms in crisis periods. The results indicate that small firms of all sector substitute bank financing for TC in crisis periods. However, large Brazilian and Mexican firms do not finance with trade credit in crisis periods due to their better capability to get money from local and foreign capital market and better ability of generating cash internally.