Understanding the role of bank lending in corporate innovation is important to policymakers, practitioners, and academics. We provide new evidence on such a role by exploiting the implementation of SFAS 166/167, which removed the off-balance sheet status of certain securitized assets of banks. The regulation affects bank lending and thus represents a credit supply shock to borrowing firms. We find that affected banks raise spreads and cut loan amounts after the regulation. Firms that borrow from affected banks reduce R&D investment and the number and quality of the patents they generate. The reduction is concentrated among firms whose banks experience more downward pressure on capital ratios and greater market discipline, and firms that are more dependent on external financing. Additional analyses reveal that information asymmetry between incumbent banks and outsiders with respect to borrowing firms prevent them from switching. The overall findings suggest that bank lending promotes borrowing firms' innovation activities. Policies that restrict bank lending are likely to hurt innovation of borrowers.

中文翻译：

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银行贷款和企业创新：来自 SFAS 166/167 的证据*

了解银行贷款在企业创新中的作用对于政策制定者、从业者和学者来说非常重要。我们通过实施 SFAS 166/167 提供了关于这种作用的新证据，该文件消除了银行某些证券化资产的表外状态。该法规影响银行贷款，因此对借款公司造成信贷供应冲击。我们发现受影响的银行在监管后提高了利差并削减了贷款金额。从受影响的银行借款的公司减少了研发投资以及他们产生的专利的数量和质量。减少主要集中在银行在资本比率和市场纪律方面面临更大下行压力的公司，以及更依赖外部融资的公司。其他分析表明，现有银行和外部机构之间关于借款公司的信息不对称阻止了他们转换。总体研究结果表明，银行贷款促进了借款公司的创新活动。限制银行放贷的政策可能会损害借款人的创新能力。