Local growth and access to credit: Theory and evidence

We theoretically and empirically investigate the effects of access to credit on local growth using a Schumpeterian growth model and assuming monopolistic competition between differentiated products of the banking system. We show that access to credit exerts a positive effect on local economic growth. To validate the theoretical prediction we use data on firms and bank branches from 18 emerging European economies. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.