To what extent are new and/or innovative firms fundamentally different from established firms, and therefore require a different form of financing? The theoretical background for this proposition is presented, and the empirical evidence on its importance is reviewed. Owing to the intangible...

Financing constraints have been discussed as a major obstacle to innovation. Small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups are particularly concerned by such impediments. Venture capital has emerged as a partial solution in some countries, but is only available for start-up firms with major...

Venture capital is considered to be the most appropriate form of financing for innovative firms in high-tech sectors. We provide an assessment of venture capital with some of Europe’s most innovative and successful companies: those listed on Europe’s “new” stock markets. Venture capital...

This paper explores empirically the effect of consolidation in the French banking industry and of Basel II on the availability of credit for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Consolidation has been associated with an increase in the number of banks the average firm borrows from and this...

Using survey data on Italian manufacturing firms, this paper examines firms' capital structure and their access to financial debt, notably bank loans. We find that the share of financial debt in total liabilities is, on average, smaller for small firms than for large ones. However, this is not...

Introducing the topic of SME finance and summarising the main findings of the contributions to this edition of the EIB Papers, this overview stresses the importance of relationship banking for the supply of SME credit; points out the differences and similarities in the capital structure of firms...

Based on a survey conducted among German Mittelstand firms and capital structure data on the Mittelstand, this paper sheds light on the current and future financing situation of the Mittelstand. The paper documents the equity shortage and dependence on bank debt typically associated with the...

This paper examines whether small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe suffer from a structural financing problem that hinders their growth. To this end, we estimate growth-cashflow sensitivities for firms in different size classes. Our results show that the sensitivity of company growth...

We examine the economics of infrastructure finance, focusing on public provision and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). We show that project finance is appropriate for PPP projects, because there are few economies of scope and because assets are project specific. Furthermore, we suggest that...

With some 19 million people out of work, unemployment has become one of the biggest problems facing the EU today. Over the last decade, job creation has been unable to keep up with the increasing size of the active population, leading to a trend of rising unemployment rates for many EU member...