Analyzing unique data on loan applications by individuals who are majority owners of small firms, we detail how a bank's credit decisions affect their future income. We use the bank's cutoff rule, which is based on the applicants' credit scores, as the discontinuous locus providing exogenous...

Effective environmental policy should consider how the financiers of polluting firms behave. In our theoretical model describing the periods before and after policy implementation, loan spreads for firms participating in cap-and-trade programs are a function of the costs of compliance, the...

Formal enforcement actions issued against banks for violations of laws and regulations related to safety and soundness can theoretically have both positive and negative effects on the terms of lending. Using data on such enforcement actions issued against U.S. banks, we show that they have a...