Did High Leverage Render Small Businesses Vulnerable to the COVID‐19 Shock?
研究发现，疫情前杠杆率高的中小企业在2020年春季后获得的新贷款更少、利率更高，且主要来自资本缓冲不足的银行；高杠杆企业难以转向其他债务融资，导致总债务、投资和就业下降，但PPP等公共支持缓解了银行信贷约束的负面影响。
Abstract Using supervisory data on small and midsized nonfinancial enterprises (SMEs), we find that those SMEs with higher leverage faced tighter constraints in accessing bank credit after the COVID‐19 outbreak in spring 2020. Specifically, SMEs with higher pre‐COVID leverage obtained a smaller volume of new loans and had to pay a higher spread on them during the pandemic period. Consistent with an inward shift in loan supply, these effects were concentrated in loans originated by banks with below‐median capital buffers. Highly levered SMEs that relied on low‐capital large banks for funding before the pandemic were not able to substitute to other sources of debt financing and thus experienced more of a reduction in total debt as well as a decline in investment and employment. On the other hand, the unprecedented public support, especially the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), mitigated the adverse real effect stemming from bank credit constraints.