The rate of growth in bank loans to private households and firms in Germany has declined substantially since early 2000 and currently stands at virtually zero. In this article, we analyse whether cyclical factors ('demand-side driven') or banks' unwillingness and/or inability to lend...

By employing a sample of 20,956 observations of non-financial SMEs headquartered in the Euro area, between 2009 and 2015, we test whether young businesses are more likely to face credit rejections from lenders than their older peers. Our findings appear to confirm our suspicions that new...

By employing a sample of 20,956 observations of non-financial SMEs headquartered in the Euro area, between 2009 and 2015, we test whether young businesses are more likely to face credit rejections from lenders than their older peers. Our findings appear to confirm our suspicions that new...

The financial crisis of 2007-09 has sparked keen interest in models of financial frictions and their impact on macro activity. Most models share the feature that borrowers suffer a contraction in the quantity of credit. However, the evidence suggests that although bank lending contracted during...

Partial credit guarantees are among the most important interventions designed to improve financial opportunities to small- and medium-size entrepreneurs (SMEs). Here, a third party, usually the government, guarantees the repayment to the lender in the event that the borrower defaults. Almost 100...

Which projects/firms should be the target of lending by a Public Development Bank (PDB)? What is the optimal design for the PDB's loans, and the optimal structure for delivering them? We analyze these questions in the context of a model where screening is costly to banks and underprovision of...

Which projects/firms should be the target of lending by a Public Development Bank (PDB)? What is the optimal design for the PDB's loans, and the optimal structure for delivering them? We analyze these questions in the context of a model where screening is costly to banks and underprovision of...

I study credit rationing in small firm bank relationships by using a unique data set of matched loan applications and contracts. I establish the degree of credit rationing by relating a firm's requested loan amount to the bank's granted amount. In line with theoretical predictions, credit...

Based on automated credit lines to more than two million vendors trading on Alibaba’s online retail platform, we show how the take-up of FinTech credit varies with the entrepreneur’s bank distance. Proximity to the branches of the five largest stateowned banks correlates positively with the...

This paper investigates the effects that the credit crunch has had on the normal differences of Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) Islamic banks relative to their peers for the period 2000 - 2008. Using the Two-sample t-test with unequal variances, nine ratios for 76 banks are studied to compare...