The Changing Landscape of Corporate Credit
![Photo: upward looking at tall glass skyscrapers that are corporate offices against a blue sky.](https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/05/LSE_2024_landscape-corp-credit_elias_460.jpg?w=920)
Firms’ access to credit is a crucial determinant of their investment, employment, and overall growth decisions. While we usually think of their ability to borrow as determined by aggregate credit conditions, in reality firms have a number of markets where they can borrow, and conditions can vary across those markets. In this post, we investigate how the composition of debt instruments on U.S. firms’ balance sheets has evolved over the last twenty years.