Voters punish incumbent Presidential candidates for contractions in the local (county-level) supply of mortgage credit during market-wide contractions of credit, but they do not reward them for expansions in mortgage credit supply in boom times. Our primary focus is the Presidential election of...

During the financial crisis, credit was reduced for many firms, and employment decreased everywhere and in most sectors. In this paper, we test whether there is a link between the financial system and job destruction through a decline in credit availability. We construct a new data set that...

This paper presents a micro data approach to the identification of credit crunches. Using a survey among German firms which regularly queries the firms' assessment of the current willingness of banks to extend credit we estimate the probability of a restrictive credit supply policy by time...

The credit gap in this study is given by the financing needs of firms that are bankable but discouraged from applying for a loan. To quantify the credit gap, we combine a scoring model that assesses the creditworthiness of discouraged firms with a credit allocation rule. Our study covers 35...

This study examines how restricted access to microfinance by households affects children's learning outcomes, utilizing a unique natural experiment that halted all microfinance operations in Andhra Pradesh (AP), India, in 2010. The analysis exploits quasi-random variation in district-level...

Much concern has recently been expressed that both large, procyclical changes in bank assets and "credit crunches" caused by bank reluctance to expand loans during recessions contribute to economic instability. These effects are difficult to explain using the standard textbook model of deposit...

The promotion and support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) forms an essential ingredient of the policies designed to help improve Europe's economic performance. A key issue is whether SMEs face difficulty obtaining bank loans. Using pre-crisis survey data from 2005 and 2006 for...

We study how a bank credit crunch—a dramatic worsening of firm and consumer access to bank credit, such as the one observed over the Great Recession—translates into job losses in U.S. manufacturing industries. To identify the impact of the recent credit crunch, we rely on differences in the...

This paper explores the connection between "zombie" firms (firms that would typically exit in a competitive market) and bank health and the consequences for aggregate productivity in 11 European countries. Controlling for cyclical effects, the results show that zombie firms are more likely to be...