A key challenge in the collective endeavour to combat the climate emergency is the shift of global investment and financing flows that underpin current and future growth to low-carbon, climate-resilient (LCCR) growth. The global community recognises this challenge: it is one of the three...

The purported advantages of corona bonds over the ESM are meagre to non-existent, says Friedrich Heinemann (EconPol Europe, ZEW). The challenge we face is to contain the spread of COVID-19 while stabilising the economy and ensuring eurozone states have sufficient liquidity and the ESM is a...

Eine Studie zeigt: Steht ein Arzt an der Spitze des Gesundheitsministeriums, steigen die Investitionen im Krankenhaussektor. Sollten Politikerinnen und Politiker Fachleute sein? Diese Frage wird häufig nach Regierungsbildungen diskutiert. Welchen Einfluss Fachkompetenz auf die Amtsführung hat,...

The transformation of economies towards significantly reduced CO2 consumption raises high investment and capital requirements. Financial and capital markets can help to mobilize the necessary funds for global investment needs and to steer capital towards sustainable investments. Moreover,...

Die Idee eines bedingungslosen Grundeinkommens (BGE) ist mittlerweile in der öffentlichen Diskussion angekommen. Ein Grundeinkommen ist ein monetärer Transfer, dessen Höhe die Existenz des Individuums absichert und seine Teilhabe an der Gesellschaft ermöglicht. Die Auszahlung erfolgt ohne...

We review the literature on financial constraints and the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We consider the important role that SMEs play in the economies of Australia and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. We examine the role of financial constraints in...

Green investment vehicles are limited by multiple market failures, such as high transaction costs for certification and monitoring, and high minimum investment sizes. In this exploratory study, we apply an inductive approach based on qualitative evidence from expert feedback to assess the...

Peer-to-business lending refers to online platforms facilitating loans from individuals to smalland medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We conjecture that easy-to-understand risk ratings conveyed by the platform play a pronounced role in influencing the borrowing success of SMEs and that more...

This paper examines the emergent role of sustainable finance and investment in Japan and scrutinizes the need for the Japanese financial system to mitigate growing climate risks and support the transition of the Japanese economy to a low-carbon, sustainable pathway. It first illustrates Japan's...

Using panel data on Egyptian firms to explore cyclical and structural determinants of access to finance, we find that firms with more educated and more experienced managers are more likely to open a checking account, often a prerequisite for obtaining credit. Firms that started operating in the...

Using a representative sample of European firms, we study whether and to what extent financing constraints affect employers' decision to invest in employee training. We combine survey data on investment activities with administrative data on financial statements to develop an index of financing...

This research paper was released on 18 March 2020 and it examines the policy and implementation frameworks currently governing the urban water sector to identify where there may be impediments to the adoption of Integrated Water Cycle Management (IWCM). IWCM refers to the joint management of...

This paper tests for the sensitivity of R&D to financing constraints conditional on restrictions in external financing. Financing constraints of firms are identified by an exogenously calculated rating index. Restrictions in external financing are determined by (i) the specific time period...

The effect of finance business partnering (FBP) implementation on the firm performance remains largely unexplored. The main aims of this study are to investigate whether there is a significant effect between FBP and firm performance and to identify the mediating effect of non-financial...

Using a representative sample of European firms, this paper studies whether and to what extent financing constraints affect employers' decisions to invest in employee training. It combines survey data on investment activities with administrative data on financial statements to develop an index...

Crowdfunding has mostly been used to finance very unique projects. Recently, however, companies have begun using it to finance more traditional products where they compete against other sellers of similar products. Major crowdfunding platforms, Kickstarter and Indiegogo, as well as Amazon have...

We use hand-collected data of 20,460 investment decisions and two distinct portals to analyze whether investors in equity crowdfunding direct their investments to local firms. In line with agency theory, the results suggest that investors exhibit a local bias, even when we control for family and...

This paper explores the dynamics of corporate finance during the early stages of industrial growth by examining a newly constructed panel database of Imperial Russian industrial corporations' balance sheets. We document large differences in financial strategies and outcomes across industries,...

The main objective of this paper is to analyze one of the alternative sources of financing - equity crowdfunding - from the point of view of managerial processes. Based on the case study analysis and the comparative analysis the problems and challenges of raising funds using equity crowdfunding...

The vast majority of enterprises worldwide can be categorized as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They play a crucial role in providing a livelihood and income for diverse segments of the labour force, in creating new jobs, fostering valued added and economic growth. In addition, SMEs...

A key challenge in the collective endeavour to combat the climate emergency is the shift of global investment and financing flows that underpin current and future growth to low-carbon, climate-resilient (LCCR) growth. The global community recognises this challenge: it is one of the three...

In this article, we examine how investor motives affect investment behavior in equity crowdfunding. In particular, we compare the investment behavior of sustainability-oriented with ordinary crowd investors on six leading equity crowdfunding platforms in Austria and Germany and investigate...

During the past decade, equity crowdfunding (ECF) has emerged as an alternative funding channel for startup firms. In Germany, the Small Investor Protection Act became binding in July 2015, with the legislative goal to protect investors engaging in this new asset class. Since then, investors...

The purported advantages of corona bonds over the ESM are meagre to non-existent, says Friedrich Heinemann (EconPol Europe, ZEW). The challenge we face is to contain the spread of COVID-19 while stabilising the economy and ensuring eurozone states have sufficient liquidity and the ESM is a...

This paper uses extensive firm-level data on Europe-an and US companies from 2014-2018 to explore the short-term impacts of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on European companies' financial performance.Our empirical analysis suggests that the costs of the GDPR during the first year...

This paper aims at investigating the relationship between firms' profit efficiency, access to finance and innovation activities. We enrich our understanding on firms' performance by adopting the stochastic frontier approach (SFA), which allows us to estimate profit functions and to obtain...

We propose a new methodology to recover firm-time varying financial constraints from firms' production behavior. We model financial constraints as the profitability that firms forgo when budget constraints on production inputs bind, impeding them from using the optimal level of inputs and...

Small businesses are considered one of the sources of innovation, productivity and dynamism in many countries. Thus, to translate innovative ideas into sustainable businesses, access to capital becomes a part and parcel of their business lifecycle. Despite their potential importance for economic...

The corporate sector has turned from a net borrowing position to a net lending position in many advanced countries over the past decades. This phenomenon is rather unusual as the corporate sector had historically borrowed funds from other sectors in the economy. In this paper, we analyze how...