Corporate Liquidity during the COVID-19 Crisis: The Trade Credit Channel

Using unique daily data on payment default to suppliers in France, we show how the trade credit channel amplified the Covid-19 shock, during the first months of the pandemic. It dramatically increased short-term liquidity needs in the most impacted downstream sectors: a one standard deviation increase in net trade credit position leads to a rise in the probability of default of up to a third. This effect is short-term and cyclical and is concentrated on financially constrained firms. We argue that taking into account the trade credit channel is critical to properly quantify liquidity shortfalls in crisis times.