Schularick and Taylor (2012) documented a sizeable increase in the ratio between credit and broad money since the end of WWII, which they interpreted in terms of a progressive disconnect between the two aggregates. I show that this interpretation is incorrect, since, as I demonstrate...

We construct a new measure of mortgage credit availability that describes the maximum amount obtainable by a borrower of given characteristics. We estimate this "loan frontier" using mortgage originations data from 2001 to 2014 and show that it reflects a binding borrowing constraint. Our...

Using loan-level municipal bank lending data, we examine the debt structure of municipalities and its response to exogenous income shocks. We show that small, more indebted, low-income, and medium credit quality counties are particularly reliant on private bank financing. Low income counties are...