We review and evaluate the international literature on activity-based funding of health services,focussing especially on experience in Australia (Victoria), Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Inevaluating this literature we summarise the differences and pros and cons of three different...

We test whether firms with a single bank are better shielded from loss of credit and investment cutsin periods of adverse cash flow shocks than firms with multiple bank relationships. Our estimatesof the cash flow sensitivity of investment show that both types of firms are equally subject...

Financial constraints have been found to play an important role on various aspects of firmbehavior. Yet, their effects on firm survival have been largely neglected. We use a panel of9420 newly established UK firms over the period 1997-2002 to study the effects offinancial variables on firms´...

We present a dynamic general equilibrium model with agency costs, where heterogeneous firms choose among two alternative instruments of external finance - corporate bonds and bank loans. We characterize the financing choice of firms and the endogenous financial structure of the economy. The...

This Report was commissioned to identify the importance of business angel investment in the UK, summarise previous approaches to mapping the scale and scope of the business angel market, identify new approaches to measuring business angel activity and assess the implications for policy.A...

We examine the role of spatial proximity for Venture Capital (VC) investments inGermany. The main database is a survey of 85 personal interviews withrepresentatives of different types of financial institutions. The analysis shows thatspatial proximity is far less important for VC investments...

This paper explores the potential of microfinance in post-conflict economies, and speci-fically examines policy considerations for the case of Iraq. It presents important condi-tions of the post-conflict economy, and examines three critical requirements for suc-cessful microfinance operations,...

This study explores individual and country-level environmental drivers of informal “seed” investment. We examine four types of informal investors based on business ownership experience (or no such experience) and close family relationship with investee (or no such relationship): “classic love...

We investigate whether the supply of Venture Capital (VC) in Germany is driven by spatial influences. The study is based on information from more than 300 VC investments made in Germany between 2004 and 2005. We find evidence that the geographical distance between a VC company and the portfolio...

It is now widely acknowledged that the entrepreneurial capacity in an economy is a key determinant of economic growth and productivity improvements. This paper uses survey data from the 15 EU Member States and the US to establish the effect of demographic and other variables on latent and actual...