This paper takes advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak to explore the determinants of firms' R&D choices around an exogenous shock. We make use of unique panel data on 7,800 Italian companies between January 2020 - right before the pandemic - and March of the same year - amid lockdown policies. We...

The lack of information is a relevant obstacle to the export activity of small and medium enterprises. This paper analyzes whether banks can support firms' export by reducing informational asymmetries about foreign markets. We exploit a large sample of Italian firms for which we merge custom...

This paper explores the link between jobs, access to Finance, and informality. Using longitudinal firm-level data for countries in the Middle East and North Africa, it documents that jobs creation is positively associated with access to finance. At the same time, the findings show that access to...

This paper documents the link between finance and informal competition. Using longitudinal firm-level data, we show that formal firms that are more exposed to the competition of informal firms are less likely to apply for a bank loan. This result is not due to sample selection, omitted variable...

This paper documents the link between finance and informal competition. Using longitudinal firm-level data, we show that formal firms that are more exposed to the competition of informal firms are less likely to apply for a bank loan. This result is not due to sample selection, omitted variable...

The lack of information is a relevant obstacle to the export activity of small and medium enterprises. This paper analyzes whether banks can support firms’ export by reducing informational asymmetries about foreign markets. We exploit a large sample of Italian firms for which we merge custom...

This paper takes advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak to explore the determinants of firms’ R&D choices around an exogenous shock. We make use of unique panel data on 7,800 Italian companies between January 2020 –right before the pandemic– and March of the same year –amid lockdown...

Starting in September 2007 the banking system worldwide was turned upside down; both level and volatility of banks' CDS spreads experienced an eightfold increase that can hardly be motivated by changes in fundamentals. The recent Global Games literature proposes a theory that explains banks'...