The use of informal finance is primarily discussed in the context of developing countries and start-up businesses. Survey data used in this study, however, shows that ``Family and Friends'' (F\&F) finance is also remarkably widespread among established firms in Germany, a highly developed...

This paper advocates for incorporating timely measures of firms' current situation and future expectations when disentangling real effects of credit supply from demand-side factors. Identification of supply-side effects in firm-level analyses often relies on balance sheet variables to control...

During the financial crisis asymmetric information in credit markets became moresevere. Did relationship banking help firms to avoid impaired credit financing andwhich credit financing problems did relationship banking help to circumvent? We usesurvey data for 1,139 German firms to analyze how...

This paper advocates for incorporating timely measures of firms' current situation and future expectations when disentangling real effects of credit supply from demand-side factors. Identification of supply-side effects in firm-level analyses often relies on balance sheet variables to control...

During the financial crisis asymmetric information in credit markets became moresevere. Did relationship banking help firms to avoid impaired credit financing andwhich credit financing problems did relationship banking help to circumvent? We usesurvey data for 1,139 German firms to analyze how...