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We develop a novel approach for measuring bank specialization using granular data on borrower activities and apply it to Peruvian exporters and their banks. We find that borrowers seek credit from banks that specialize in their export destinations, both when expanding exports and when exporting to new countries. Firms experiencing country‐specific export demand shocks adjust borrowing disproportionately from specialized banks. Specialized bank credit supply shocks affect exports disproportionately to countries of specialization. Our results demonstrate that firm credit demand is bank‐ and activity‐specific, which reduces banking competition and affects the transmission and amplification of shocks through the banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the elasticity of exports to credit using matched customs and firm-level bank credit data from Peru. To account for non-credit determinants of exports, we compare changes in exports of the same product and to the same destination by firms borrowing from banks differentially affected by capital-flow reversals during the 2008 financial crisis. We find that credit shocks affect the intensive margin of exports, but have no significant impact on entry or exit of firms to new product and destination markets. Our results suggest that credit shortages reduce exports through raising the variable cost of production, rather than the cost of financing sunk entry investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide evidence on the causal link between financing constraints and the risk of corporate cash flows and returns. For identification, we compare public US firms in the same industry, location, and size quintile, but whose access to bank credit was differentially affected by WorldCom’s demise in 2002. A credit shortage induces a permanent increase in the volatility and skewness of operating cash flows and an increase in the correlation between firm stock and market returns. We document how firms’ cash, payout, and investment policies respond endogenously to mitigate the impact of constraints on risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]