I exploit variation in the congestion of civil courts across Brazilian municipalities, together with a bankruptcy reform increasing secured creditors' protection, to estimate the effect of enforcement on firm access to finance, investment and size. I find that firms operating in municipalities...

Using a new case-level dataset we document a set of stylized facts on bankruptcy in China and study how the staggered introduction of specialized courts across Chinese cities affects insolvency resolution and the local economy. For identification, we compare bankruptcy cases handled by...

Most governments in developing countries offer subsidized credit programs to the agricultural sector. We document that farmers often lack information on how these programs work, their eligibility criteria and loan terms offered. We study the impact of information frictions on credit take-up by...

In this article we review the literature on the recent growth of corporate debt in China, and present stylized facts on the evolution of debt composition, non-performing loans, defaults, and bankruptcy filings. We then describe the legal and political institutions that characterize the system...

We study the role of court enforcement in shaping the impact of a financial reform on bank loans. We use micro-data on loans to manufacturing firms from the National Credit Registry of the Central Bank of Brazil matched with a measure of court congestion at judicial district level. We find that,...