This study conducts an empirical investigation of the effects of access to finance on the growth of firms in African countries. In order to achieve this, we made use of a new rich enterprise-level data set from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys and employ both subjective and objective measures...

We study the leverage of U.S. firms over their life cycles and the connection between firm leverage, firm growth, and aggregate shocks. We construct a new dataset that combines private and public firms’ balance sheets with firm-level data from U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Business...

A unique legal reform in 2004 in Sweden redistributed collateral rights from banks holding floating liens to unsecured creditors without changing the value of assets on firms' balance sheets. Using a country-wide panel of all incorporated firms, we document that a zero-sum redistribution of...