This article provides evidence that financial development impacts growth by reducing financing constraints that would otherwise distort efficient allocation of investment. The financing constraints are inferred from the investment Euler equation by assuming that the firm's stochastic discount factor is a function of the firm's financial position (specifically, the stock of liquid assets). The magnitude of the changes in the cost of capital is twice as large in a country with a low level of financial development as in a country with an average level of financial development. The size effect, business cycles, and legal environment effects are also considered.

This article provides evidence that financial development impacts growth by reducing financing constraints that would otherwise distort efficient allocation of investment. The financing constraints are inferred from the investment Euler equation by assuming that the firm's stochastic discount factor is a function of the firm's financial position (specifically, the stock of liquid assets). The magnitude of the changes in the cost of capital is twice as large in a country with a low level of financial development as in a country with an average level of financial development. The size effect, business cycles, and legal environment effects are also considered.

Recent work suggests that financial development is important for economic growth, since financial markets more effectively allocate capital to firms with high value projects. For firms in poorly developed financial markets, implicit borrowing in the form of trade credit may provide an alternative source of funds. We show that industries with higher dependence on trade credit financing exhibit higher rates of growth in countries with weaker financial institutions. Furthermore, consistent with barriers to trade credit access among young firms, we show that most of the effect that we report comes from growth in the size of preexisting firms.