Supporting small firms through recessions and recoveries

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bonfim, Diana; Custodio, Claudia; Raposo, Clara
• 署名单位: Universidade Catolica Portuguesa; Banco de Portugal; Universidade Catolica Portuguesa; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of London; London Business School; Imperial College London; Banco de Portugal; Universidade de Lisboa
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2023.01.004
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 658-688
• 关键词: Small firms? financing; Credit rating; Credit certification; Cost of debt; INVESTMENT

摘要

We use variation in the access to a government credit certification program to estimate the financial and real effects of supporting small firms. This program was first implemented during the global financial crisis, but has remained active ever since, allowing us to ana-lyze its effects both during recessions and recoveries. Eligible firms have access to govern-ment loan guarantees and a credit quality certification. We estimate real effects using a multidimensional regression discontinuity design. We find that eligible firms borrow more and at lower rates than non-eligible firms, allowing them to increase investment and em-ployment during crises. Industry-level analysis shows reduced productivity heterogeneity in more exposed industries, which is consistent with improved credit allocation. However, when the economy is recovering the effects of the program are less pronounced and cen-tered on the certification component. The cost-per-job in the recovery period is half of the one estimated for the crisis period (5784 euro and 11,788 euro, respectively). (c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )