Corporate Finance and Monetary Policy

Abstract

This paper provides a theory of external and internal finance where entrepreneurs finance random investment opportunities with fiat money, bank liabilities, or trade credit. Loans are distributed in an over-the-counter credit market where the terms of the loan contract, including size, rate, and down payment, are negotiated in a decentralized fashion subject to pledgeability constraints. The model has implications for the cross-sectional distribution of corporate loan rates and loan sizes, interest rate pass-through, and the transmission of monetary policy (described either as money growth or open market operations) with or without liquidity requirements.