We introduce a novel measure of uncertainty that is based on a business survey in which firms are asked directly how certain or uncertain they are. So far the literature has tried to capture economic uncertainty indirectly by means of expectation errors or the extent of disagreement. Our direct...

The quality of the public administration is an important driver of EU competitiveness and influences firms' growth prospects through a number of channels. During their lifetime, firms interact with public administration in different ways; complying with regulatory requirements, registering,...

We study how firms' individual credit market experience influences their beliefs about the bank lending policy, using the Austrian Business Survey between 2011 and 2016. Firms which have recently experienced a loan rejection are more likely to believe that the lending policy is restrictive. We...