The aim of this paper is to understand why firms choose to finance their fixed asset investments by informal credit. We examine the both country and firm level determinants of this choice in a cross-country setting. Data on informal credit use of firms is extracted from the Business Environment...

We explore the motivations underlying the securitization transactions placed by the Italian banks from 1999 to 2006. By estimating probit and proportional hazard duration models, in which the probability of placing securitizations is linked to a set of balance sheet indicators and a vector of...