[...]Because of these concerns, this article examines the value ofthe Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey in predicting bothlending and output.1 We find that the changes in commercialcredit standards reported by loan officers are indeed linked toaggregate loan growth. Commercial lending by U.S....

Evidence in this paper suggests that a close banking relationship - a loan commitment in particularparticular, relax cash flow and cash management constraints on firms. Given firms' prospects (Q), the investment and cash flow correlation is substantially lower when firms have a bank loan...