Credit Supply and Productivity Growth

IMF Working Papers, May 17, 2019

Source details

Research question: Impact of bank credit on firm productivity.
Data and identification:
- Matched firm-bank database covering all the credit relationships of Italian corporations.
- Use of a natural experiment to measure idiosyncratic supply-side shocks to credit availability.
- Estimation of a production model augmented with financial frictions.

A contraction in credit supply causes a reduction of firm TFP growth.
A contraction in credit supply also harms:
- IT-adoption,
- innovation,
- exporting,
- adoption of superior management practices.
A credit expansion has limited impact.
Quantitative contribution: "the credit contraction between 2007 and 2009 accounts for about a quarter of observed the decline in TFP."

Subject: Bank credit, Banking, Credit, Economic theory, Financial markets, Interbank markets, Money, Production, Productivity, Supply shocks
Keywords: Bank credit, borrowing firm, capital stock, Credit, credit crunch, credit supply, Export, firm balance-sheets, firm information, firm TFP, input acquisition, interbank market, Interbank markets, IT adoption, Management, output price, policy function, Productivity, productivity dynamics, productivity effect, relation characteristic, supply shock, Supply shocks, WP

Content summarized from IMF Working Papers entry "Credit Supply and Productivity Growth" by Francesco Manaresi and Nicola Pierri (May 17, 2019).