Entrepreneur Debt Aversion and Financing Decisions: Evidence from COVID-19 Support Programs

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Paaso, Mikael; Pursiainen, Vesa; Torstila, Sami
• 署名单位: Erasmus University Rotterdam - Excl Erasmus MC; Erasmus University Rotterdam; University of St Gallen; Swiss Finance Institute (SFI); Aalto University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2022.03007
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: debt aversion; small business loans; liquidity; Covid-19; government support; FINANCING DECISIONS

摘要

An entrepreneur's negative attitude toward debt (debt aversion) affects the financing decisions of the businesses they run. Controlling for a range of observable traits, firms run by highly debt-averse entrepreneurs are about 10 percentage points less likely to use debt. The same entrepreneurs are also almost 25% less likely to take up government-guaranteed debt during the COVID-19 crisis. These firms show less interest in COVID-19 support policies if they perceive them to involve debt based on experiments randomizing the framing and labeling of otherwise nearly identical hypothetical COVID-19 support policies as debt or grants.