【正文】 1 外文題目： The importance of informal finance in kenyan manufacturing 出 處： International Journal of Social Economics 作 者： Anders Isaksson 原 文： THE IMPORTANCE OF INFORMAL FINANCE IN KENYAN MANUFACTURING Anders Isaksson Abstract: This paper investigates the importance of informal finance for Kenyan manufacturing firms. The results indicate that informal borrowing is not an important alternative to other forms of finance. The main clients of informal finance are informal firms and relatively small formal ones, although informal credit is to some extent demanded by firms of all sizes. Most important among the informal financial sources are relatives and friends. The principal reasons for using informal finance are low interest rates, easier formalities, and the fact that no collateral is required. Keywords:Informal finance,Angels,Africa,Kenya, Manufacturing sector Introduction Access to external finance is important to all enterprises. For instance, investment in fixed capital often requires a large lump sum of funds. The adoption and installation of new and better technology might demand external finance. Some firms need accessto working capital financing to smooth out fluctuations in ine due to differencesin the timing of production and sales. In many Subsaharan African economies. However, financial and legal systems do not operate efficiently and,therefore, credit may not be forthing. In such a situation, a firm has to seek alternative sources of finance. The alternative source of external finance considered in this paper is the informal financial ,SSA financial systems have been highly fragmented into dual markets,namely,a formal and an informal financial ,the formal financial sector has been seen to serve the government,while the informal one serves the private sector. There are two main views explaining the existence of informal is that informal finance is a reaction to policy distortions,or financial repression(,1995。Taylor,1983).Since the informal financial sector is not subject to regulation,it is more efficient than the formal remedy for the relative inefficiency of the formal credit market may be seen in financial second view maintains that the informal sector has a parative advantage in some 2 market segments notwithstanding financial it is costly for formal institutions to acquire information,informal agents can utilize local personal information,resulting in monopoly is wellknown that a weak legal system inhibits contract enforcement,which results in credit rationing of potential borrowers without agents can fill such market segments and collateral can be replaced by reputation,group responsibility,and interlinked transactions(Steel et al,1997). While informal financial markets in Asia are often vibrant and relatively efficient,there are few indications that informal finance is an important alternative to formal credit in study by Biggs et al(1994),using Kenyan data for one year,finds that informal finance is used to a limited extent only,with the preferred informal source being that of relatives and friends(angels).It is interesting to note,however,that those few firms that do use informal finance can be of any size. While most of the literature stresses the limited role of informal finance in SSA,an exception is the Ghanastudy by Cuevas et al(1993),which finds that informal financial activities are of significant importance to small and mediumsized dominant informal source is borrowing from ,Pender and Robinson(1995)show that informal finance constitutes 34 per cent of total debt for small firms in other size categories,the c