The relation between the degree of financial development of an economy (measured by the extent in which constraints to credit exist) and fluctuations affecting the trend of economic growth, is a relevant theme of discussion in macroeconomics. Some of the literature on this field argues that the...

This research demonstrates that international financial integration changes the way in which financial development affects inequality within a country. Specifically, both the cross-country analysis and the dynamic panel data analysis using data collected from more than 100 countries provide...

Credit constraints are central to development economics theory. However, there is scant direct evidence that supports the existence of such constraints. Traditional tests observe how consumption changes after an unexpected income shock. Such changes can also result from myopic behavior or...

In China, local public debt issuance between 2006 and 2013 crowded out investment by private manufacturing firms by tightening their funding constraints, while it did not affect state-owned and foreign firms. Using novel data for local public debt issuance, we establish this result in three...

The paper shows that in a general equilibrium model with two countries, characterized by different levels of financial development, and two technologies, one more productive and more financially demanding than the other, the following stylized facts can be replicated: 1) the persistent US...

The paper analyzes a linear growth model with idiosyncratic productivity shocks and self-enforcing loan contracts. Agents cannot commit to repay their loans because of insuficient collateral, but the threat of credit market exclusion prevents agents from default. Credit repayment is enforced by...

We use a French firm-level panel data set over the period 1993-2004 to analyze the relationship between credit constraints and firms' R&D behavior over the business cycle. Our main results can be summarized as follows: (i) the share of R&D investment over total investment is countercyclical...

This paper provides a new approach to analyzing credit constraints by differentiating which of the household's production and consumption decisions are affected by credit constraints. It also provides a first attempt to estimate of the extent and determinants of credit constraints in the...

This paper shows that in a stylized model with two countries, characterized by different levels of financial development, the following facts can be replicated: 1) persistent current account surpluses and 2) high TFP growth in China. Under autarky, entrepreneurs in the emerging country...

In this paper, we formalize the view that economic development requires high rates of productive entrepreneurship, and this requires an efficient matching between entrepreneurial talent and production technologies. We first explore the role of financial development in promoting such efficient...