In the presence of persistent heterogeneity in capital, debt and total factor productivity, the effects of a financial shock are amplified and propagated through large and long-lived disruptions to the distribution of capital that, in turn, imply large and persistent reductions in aggregate...

Over the past decade, a number of researchers have extended conventional models of business fixed investment to incorporate a role for financial constraints' in determining investment. This paper reviews developments and challenges in this empirical research, and uses advances in models of...