A large-scale survey of UK small business finances is analysed for evidence of ethnic discrimination in the credit market. A summary analysis of credit outcomes (loan denials, loan interest rates and discouragement) reveals large differences across ethnic groups with Black and Bangladeshi...

Previous research has suggested collateral has the role of sorting entrepreneurs either by observed risk or by private information. In order to test these roles, this paper develops a model which incorporates a signalling process (sorting by observed risk) into the design of an...

This study examines two issues. First, we assess the reliability of employment data self-generated by respondents using a survey panel of 280 firms surveyed in 1999 and again in 2002. Our results show that there is a close correlation between self-generated and archival secondary data. Second,...

This paper takes the concept of a discouraged borrower originally formulated by Kon and Storey [Kon, Y., Storey, D.J., 2003. A theory of discouraged borrowers. Small Business Economics 21, 37-49] and examines whether discouragement is an efficient self-rationing mechanism, Using US data it finds...