Earnings-Based Borrowing Constraints and Macroeconomic Fluctuations
Thomas Drechsel ,
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
December
2022
Abstract

Microeconomic evidence reveals a direct link between firms’ current earnings and their access to debt. This paper studies macroeconomic implications of earnings-based borrowing constraints. In a macro model, firms with earnings-based constraints borrow more in response to positive investment shocks, whereas firms with collateral constraints borrow less. Empirically, aggregate and firm-level credit responds to identified investment shocks according to the predictions with earnings-based constraints.

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