Fear of commitment: Weak institutions, volatile economy, and the prevalence of short-term International capital

Abstract

This paper shows that weak legal and political institutions and high macroeconomic volatility shorten the maturity of cross-border bank lending. Although these results are confirmed in the previous literature, this paper uses a broader panel data set of 135 countries from 1983 to 2012. Data also suggest new finding that the maturity of international bank credit and per capita GDP are positively correlated. The share of debt incurred by banks shortens the maturity, while the share of debt incurred by governments lengthen the maturity of cross-border credit. Our results are robust after we control for potential endogeneity.