Description:
Using panel data on Egyptian firms to explore cyclical and structural determinants of access to finance, we find that firms with more educated and more experienced managers are more likely to open a checking account, often a prerequisite for obtaining credit. Firms that started operating in the informal sector before registering are less likely to engage with the banking system. Exploiting data on the location of firms and bank branches, we also show that firms located in areas with a greater presence of banks that invest more in government debt are more likely to be credit constrained due to crowding out of the private sector.