The German economy entered the year 2011 buoyantly. The upswing is expected to continue throughout 2011 with GDP increasing at an average rate of 2.7%. Both internal and external demand will drive the economy. In the course of the forecast horizon, however, economic activity will become less...

At the center of this study is the identification of the empirically and, thus, policy relevant causes of financial contraction. Our focus is on identifying the "pure" credit-limiting supply effect in order to assess its importance as it is claimed in the theoretical literature.