Financial crisis spillovers to the corporate sector: Bank-dependent borrowers versus bond market paticipants

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

This paper provides empirical evidence on the impact that shocks to capital providers have on their borrowers’ performance. We use the recent financial crisis, which was originated in the U.S. mortgage market, as reasonably exogenous shock to the performance of European Union-based companies, therefore allowing us to disentangle credit supply and demand-side frictions. Our results show that bank-dependent firms were more adversely affected by the financial crisis in terms of stock market valuation, investment decisions and profitability, in comparison to firms with access to public debt markets. Overall, we highlight the role that financial intermediaries play in the propagation of financial shocks to the real economy, even across distinct regions.