Most firms aspire to longevity, yet only a minority survive more than their initial years. Unsurprisingly, then, business survival has long attracted the interest of many academics. The various factors thought to influence business longevity have generated multiple studies on ownership status,...

Entrepreneurship aims to contribute significantly to economic development, a trend that has been progressively growing over time. Nonetheless, female entrepreneurs continue to face substantial challenges, including limited access to financial resources and sociocultural barriers. The influence...

What are the key determinants of firm growth in developing countries? Using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) spanning 2010-2024, we examine the impact of three distinct categories of factors on firm growth dynamics: (1) firm-level characteristics, (2) contextual...

This paper examines the impact of the European Union's Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 on enterprise dynamics at the NUTS-2 level. Using discrete eligibility thresholds at 75 and 90 percent of EU average GDP per capita, we implement sharp and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs to assess effects on...

This working paper assesses the economic impact of EIF-supported equity investments in the Lower Mid-Market (LMM) segment across Europe between 2007 and 2023. Using advanced causal inference techniques, the study compares over 1,700 investee firms with a matched control group to isolate the...

This paper replicates and extends the framework of Guzman and Stern (2020) to examine the evolution of entrepreneurial activity in Europe, focusing on France, Germany, and the United Kingdom between 2009 and 2023. Using harmonized national business registry data, we construct measures of both...

Venture capital (VC) is vital for innovation and economic growth, providing capital and networks to early-stage firms. While research shows a generally positive impact, challenges and failures are often overlooked, potentially creating a skewed perception of success. A review of 72 articles...

Banks in the United States face persistent challenges from non-performing loans (NPLs), despite conducting thorough client evaluations before issuing loans. To mitigate the impact of NPLs and support both local and global growth, banks must adopt effective risk management strategies. This study...

This working paper assesses the economic impact of EIF-supported equity investments in the Lower Mid-Market (LMM) segment across Europe between 2007 and 2023. Using advanced causal inference techniques, the study compares over 1,700 investee firms with a matched control group to isolate the...

We study the short- and medium-term extensive and intensive margins of intangible investments in firm growth processes. The intensive and extensive margins of investment are both highly skewed and differ across sectors. Less productive firms are less likely to invest in intangibles, while...

This study provides the first empirical evidence on the impact of innovation and firm growth on performance across G7 economies, using a unique panel dataset of 252 firms from 2020 to 2024. This study examines two core dimensions of firm performance-labor productivity and asset turnover-and...

Frame of the research: While several studies focused on innovative startup creation, less attention has been devoted to the drivers of the growth of these startups. Purpose of the paper: The study investigates drivers of the growth of innovative startups, taking into consideration jointly...

This study distinguishes between observed, uncertain, and stochastic uncertain firm growth. Observed firm growth is measured via historical growth of fixed assets scaled by growth of sales revenue. Uncertain firm growth is the volatility of unobserved (estimated error terms) firm growth. The...

This paper investigates how financial constraints impede firms' ability to achieve high growth. Using a comprehensive panel dataset of Turkish firms from 2012 to 2021, we analyze the relationship between short-term debt intensity - our proxy for financial constraints - and firms' likelihood of...

This paper investigates the dilemma of growth in which the expectation of high growth is the source of discouragement among borrowers. Using the panel probit model on a cross-country panel of firms studies in waves of the Survey on Access to Finance of Enterprises, we do not find any evidence...

This paper studies the role of capacity utilisation in explaining investment behaviour in Italian SMEs and large firms. We propose a framework in which firms with high capacity utilisation are more likely to invest in maintaining a buffer against future shocks. Using firm-level data from the...

This paper studies how a forward-looking decision maker experiments on unknown alternatives of correlated utilities. The utilities are modeled by a Brownian motion such that similar alternatives yield similar utilities. Experimentation trades off between the continuation value of exploration and...