Based on archival and survey data we show that the maturity of U.S. business loans has been continuously increasing since the mid-1930s when banks invented the term loan. Concurrently, bank innovation first involved the invention of credit analysis and covenant design. Later, bank innovation...

Based on archival and survey data we show that the maturity of U.S. business loans has been continuously increasing since the mid-1930s when banks invented the term loan. Concurrently, bank innovation first involved the invention of credit analysis and covenant design. Later, bank innovation...

Private information about prospective borrowers produced by a bank can affect rival lenders due to a quot;winner%u2019s cursequot; effect. Strategic interaction between banks with respect to the intensity of costly information production results in endogenous credit cycles, periodic quot;credit...