This post is part of a series highlighting the key findings of the Global Financial Development Report 2015 | 2016: Long-Term Finance. You can view all the posts in the series at gfdr2015.
The first part of Chapter 2 of the 2015 Global Financial Development Report examines the use of long-term finance from the firm’s perspective. It draws on theoretical and empirical studies to ask why firms would want to use long-term finance and how this use affects their performance. It also relies on the most recent data and evidence to show how use of long-term finance varies across countries and discusses what governments can do to promote the use of long-term finance by firms. Here are the main messages regarding firms’ use of long-term finance:
Firms tend to match the maturity of their assets and liabilities, and thus they often use long-term debt to make long-term investments, such as purchases of fixed assets or equipment. Long-term finance also offers protection from credit supply shocks and having to refinance in bad times. But not all firms need long-term finance. For example, firms with good growth opportunities may prefer short-term debt since they may want to refinance their debt frequently to obtain better loan terms after they have experienced a positive shock.