The collapse in bank lending in 2008-09 led directly to falling employment at nonfinancial firms

Does the health of banks on Wall Street affect economic outcomes on Main Street? After the 2008-09 financial crisis, bank lending to nonfinancial firms declined significantly, with effects on employment and incomes. Drawing on data from over 2,000 firms, Gabriel Chodorow-Reich finds that credit restrictions accounted for between one-third and one-half of the employment decline at small and medium firms in the year following the Lehman bankruptcy. He also finds that the ‘stickiness’ of bank-borrower relationships meant that many firms that that had pre-crisis links with less healthy lenders suffered more than those that had relationships with healthier ones.