Abstract: The difficulty involved with acquiring a small business loan has become a serious problem that threatens to hamper the growth of world economy. This paper constructs a theoretical model framework of bank lending behavior under both interest rate control and interest rate liberation. The impacts surrounding the implementation of capital adequacy requirements on banks’ lending behavior are analyzed with regards to this baseline model. Simulations and empirical tests are then conducted on the model to identify the correlation between the implementation of capital requirements and lending discrimination against small businesses. The findings suggest that commercial banks do discriminate against small businesses in lending operations, and capital requirements would intensify such discrimination, making small business loans more difficult to obtain. Financial supervisory authority should take more flexible measures for capital supervision and adequately amend the existing regulatory provisions to encourage and motivate commercial banks to grant small business loans and thus mitigate lending discrimination.

　　Key words: small businesses, lending discrimination, capital requirements

本文发表于SSCI期刊，《Annals of Economics and Finance》，14（2），391-417，2013