Herd Behavior in the Japanese Loan Market: Evidence from Bank Panel Data

This paper investigates whether Japanese banks had been following herd behavior in the domestic loan market from 1975 through 2002. Applying the technique developed by Lakonishok, Shleifer, and Vishny (LSV) (1992, J. of Fin. Econ.) to the data of loans outstanding to different types of borrowers, we obtain evidence indicative of the existence of herding. Consistent herding during the entire sample period is observed among regional banks, whereas city banks had been following a cyclical herd behavior with one peak around the bubble period in the late 1980s. Even after adjusting for herding resulting from rational or institutional factors, we still observe herding for regional banks in the entire period, whereas herding only in the bubble period remains for city banks. The results would indicate that regional banks had been consistently following irrational herd behavior, while city banks were frantic enough to herd only in the bubble period in the late 1980s.