IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i10p3400-d171764.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial Infrastructure and Access to Finance for European SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Alin Marius Andrieș

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration & Centre for Research in Finance, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Bvd. Carol I, nr. 22, Iasi 700505, Romania)

  • Nicu Marcu

    (The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 6 Piata Romana, Bucharest 010374, Romania)

  • Florin Oprea

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration & Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Bvd. Carol I, nr. 22, Iasi 700505, Romania)

  • Mihaela Tofan

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration & Centre for Research in Finance, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Bvd. Carol I, nr. 22, Iasi 700505, Romania)

Abstract

In this article we assess credit rationing across European countries by analyzing the impact of banking competition on the access to finance of firms. The importance of the financial sector in promoting the sustainable economy is recognized by the European Union, that has taken the lead in efforts to build a financial system that supports sustainable growth. However, it should be acknowledged that in highly competitive business environments, it is not easy to challenge the existing paradigms, since companies need to be profitable in addition to improving their environmental performance. Using data from European firms Survey on the Access to Finance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), our results, using Probit regression, support the Market Power Hypothesis, outlining that more concentrated banking markets are characterized by higher levels of credit rationing. Also, our results reveal that small firms are more credit rationed compared to large firms. The analysis shows that financial constraints are stronger in the countries more affected by the financial crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Alin Marius Andrieș & Nicu Marcu & Florin Oprea & Mihaela Tofan, 2018. "Financial Infrastructure and Access to Finance for European SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-15, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:10:p:3400-:d:171764
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/10/3400/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/10/3400/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Inessa Love & María Soledad Martínez Pería, 2015. "How Bank Competition Affects Firms' Access to Finance," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(3), pages 413-448.
    2. Zarutskie, Rebecca, 2006. "Evidence on the effects of bank competition on firm borrowing and investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 503-537, September.
    3. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Laeven, Luc & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2006. "The determinants of financing obstacles," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 932-952, October.
    4. Allen N. Berger & Gregory F. Udell, 2002. "Small Business Credit Availability and Relationship Lending: The Importance of Bank Organisational Structure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages 32-53, February.
    5. Alexander Popov & Neeltje Van Horen, 2015. "Exporting Sovereign Stress: Evidence from Syndicated Bank Lending during the Euro Area Sovereign Debt Crisis," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(5), pages 1825-1866.
    6. Jiménez, Gabriel & Ongena, Steven & Peydró, José-Luis & Saurina, Jesús, 2012. "Credit Supply and Monetary Policy: Identifying the Bank Balance-Sheet Channel with Loan Applications," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 102(5), pages 2301-2326.
    7. Alin Marius Andries & Martin Brown, 2017. "Credit booms and busts in emerging markets," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 25(3), pages 377-437, July.
    8. Love, Inessa & Preve, Lorenzo A. & Sarria-Allende, Virginia, 2007. "Trade credit and bank credit: Evidence from recent financial crises," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 453-469, February.
    9. Robert Hauswald & Robert Marquez, 2006. "Competition and Strategic Information Acquisition in Credit Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 967-1000.
    10. Sofronis Clerides & Manthos D. Delis & Sotirios Kokas, 2013. "A new data set on competition in national banking markets," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 08-2013, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    11. Antonio Affuso, 2008. "Credit Rationing and Asset Value," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 98(3), pages 33-54, May-June.
    12. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2004. "Bank Competition and Access to Finance: International Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(3), pages 627-648, June.
    13. Kirschenmann, Karolin, 2016. "Credit rationing in small firm-bank relationships," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 68-99.
    14. Zsolt Darvas, 2013. "Banking system soundness is the key to more SME financing," Policy Contributions 785, Bruegel.
    15. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 1995. "The Effect of Credit Market Competition on Lending Relationships," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 407-443.
    16. Chong, Terence Tai-Leung & Lu, Liping & Ongena, Steven, 2013. "Does banking competition alleviate or worsen credit constraints faced by small- and medium-sized enterprises? Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3412-3424.
    17. Ivashina, Victoria & Scharfstein, David, 2010. "Bank lending during the financial crisis of 2008," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 319-338, September.
    18. Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo, 2010. "Financing Frictions and the Substitution between Internal and External Funds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 589-622, June.
    19. Álvarez, Roberto & Bertin, Mauricio Jara, 2016. "Banking competition and firm-level financial constraints in Latin America," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 89-104.
    20. Ryan, Robert M. & O’Toole, Conor M. & McCann, Fergal, 2014. "Does bank market power affect SME financing constraints?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 495-505.
    21. Shannon Mudd, 2013. "Bank Structure, Relationship Lending and Small Firm Access to Finance: A Cross-Country Investigation," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 44(2), pages 149-174, October.
    22. Degryse, Hans & Ongena, Steven, 2007. "The impact of competition on bank orientation," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 399-424, July.
    23. Tara Rice & Philip E. Strahan, 2010. "Does Credit Competition Affect Small‐Firm Finance?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 861-889, June.
    24. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1995. "Relationship Lending and Lines of Credit in Small Firm Finance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(3), pages 351-381, July.
    25. Ken S. Cavalluzzo, 2002. "Competition, Small Business Financing, and Discrimination: Evidence from a New Survey," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 641-680, October.
    26. Cenni, Stefano & Monferrà, Stefano & Salotti, Valentina & Sangiorgi, Marco & Torluccio, Giuseppe, 2015. "Credit rationing and relationship lending. Does firm size matter?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 249-265.
    27. Anjali Kumar & Manuela Francisco, 2005. "Enterprise Size, Financing Patterns, and Credit Constraints in Brazil : Analysis of Data from the Investment Climate Assessment Survey," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7330, December.
    28. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 2006. "Small and medium-size enterprises: Access to finance as a growth constraint," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2931-2943, November.
    29. Drakos, Konstantinos & Giannakopoulos, Nicholas, 2011. "On the determinants of credit rationing: Firm-level evidence from transition countries," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 1773-1790.
    30. Popov, Alexander & Udell, Gregory F., 2012. "Cross-border banking, credit access, and the financial crisis," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 147-161.
    31. Leon, Florian, 2015. "Does bank competition alleviate credit constraints in developing countries?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 130-142.
    32. Dell'Ariccia, Giovanni & Marquez, Robert, 2004. "Information and bank credit allocation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 185-214, April.
    33. Luis Miguel Fonseca & José Pedro Domingues & Maria Teresa Pereira & Florinda Figueiredo Martins & Dominik Zimon, 2018. "Assessment of Circular Economy within Portuguese Organizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-24, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Halil Dincer Kaya, 2023. "The Impact Of The 2008-2009 Global Crisis On Retailers’ And Core Industry Firms’ Loan Applications," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1, pages 16-24, February.
    2. Halil D. Kaya, 2023. "The Impact Of The 2008-2009 Global Crisis On Retailers’ And Core Industry Firms’ Loan Applications: The Case Of Eastern Europe And Central Asia," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 4, pages 5-12, August.
    3. Langzi Chen & Zhihong Chen & Jian Li, 2019. "Can Trade Credit Maintain Sustainable R&D Investment of SMEs?—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Salman Ali & Guihua Li & Ping Yang & Kramat Hussain & Yousaf Latif, 2020. "Unpacking the importance of intangible skills in new product development and sustainable business performance; strategies for marketing managers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-26, September.
    5. Obey Dzomonda, 2022. "Environmental Sustainability Commitment and Access to Finance by Small and Medium Enterprises: The Role of Financial Performance and Corporate Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-20, July.
    6. Ma Degong & Farid Ullah & Muhammad Sualeh Khattak & Muhammad Anwar, 2018. "Do International Capabilities and Resources Configure Firm’s Sustainable Competitive Performance? Research within Pakistani SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-16, November.
    7. Lisa Crosato & Caterina Liberati & Marco Repetto, 2021. "Look Who's Talking: Interpretable Machine Learning for Assessing Italian SMEs Credit Default," Papers 2108.13914, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    8. Francisco-Javier Canto-Cuevas & María-José Palacín-Sánchez & Filippo Di Pietro, 2019. "Trade Credit as a Sustainable Resource during an SME’s Life Cycle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-16, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Florian Leon, 2015. "What do we know about the role of bank competition in Africa?," CERDI Working papers halshs-01164864, HAL.
    2. Pedro Manuel Nogueira Reis & António Pedro Soares Pinto, 2022. "How Do Banking Characteristics Influence Companies’ Debt Features and Performance during COVID-19? A Study of Portuguese Firms," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-29, October.
    3. Leon, Florian, 2015. "Does bank competition alleviate credit constraints in developing countries?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 130-142.
    4. Wang, Xiaodong & Han, Liang & Huang, Xing, 2020. "Bank market power and SME finance: Firm-bank evidence from European countries," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Wang, Xiaodong & Han, Liang & Huang, Xing, 2020. "Bank competition, concentration and EU SME cost of debt," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Jose E. Gomez-Gonzalez & Sebastian Sanin-Restrepo & Cesar E. Tamayo & Oscar M. Valencia, 2023. "Bank market power and firm finance: evidence from bank and loan-level data," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4629-4660, December.
    7. Pietro Grandi & Caroline Ninou Bozou, 2023. "Bank Market Power and Access to Credit: Bank-Firm Level Evidence From the Euro Area," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 63(1), pages 63-90, February.
    8. Álvarez, Roberto & Bertin, Mauricio Jara, 2016. "Banking competition and firm-level financial constraints in Latin America," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 89-104.
    9. Meslier, Céline & Sauviat, Alain & Yuan, Dian, 2020. "Comparative advantages of regional versus national banks in alleviating SME's financial constraints," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    10. Ana Mol-Gómez-Vázquez & Ginés Hernández-Cánovas & Johanna Koëter-Kant, 2019. "Bank market power and the intensity of borrower discouragement: analysis of SMEs across developed and developing European countries," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 211-225, June.
    11. Théo Nicolas., 2023. "Bank Market Power and Interest Rate Setting: Why Consolidated Banking Data Matte [Pouvoir de marché des banques et fixation des taux d’intérêt : de l’importance de prendre en compte les données ban," Débats économiques et financiers 40, Banque de France.
    12. Mascia, Danilo V. & Rossi, Stefania P.S., 2017. "Is there a gender effect on the cost of bank financing?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 136-153.
    13. Hsieh, Joyce & Chen, Ting-Cih & Lin, Shu-Chin, 2019. "Financial structure, bank competition and income inequality," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 450-466.
    14. Bernini, Michele & Montagnoli, Alberto, 2017. "Competition and financial constraints: A two-sided story," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 88-109.
    15. Pietro Grandi & Caroline Ninou Bozou, 2018. "Bank competition and firm credit availability: firm-bank evidence from Europe," Working Papers hal-01897744, HAL.
    16. Raffaella Calabrese & Claudia Girardone & Alex Sclip, 2021. "Financial fragmentation and SMEs’ access to finance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 2041-2065, December.
    17. Ogura, Yoshiaki, 2012. "Lending competition and credit availability for new firms: Empirical study with the price cost margin in regional loan markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1822-1838.
    18. Chala, Alemu Tulu & Forssbaeck, Jens, 2018. "Does Collateral Reduce Loan-Size Credit Rationing? Survey Evidence," Working Papers 2018:36, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    19. Fungáčová, Zuzana & Shamshur, Anastasiya & Weill, Laurent, 2017. "Does bank competition reduce cost of credit? Cross-country evidence from Europe," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 104-120.
    20. Zarutskie, Rebecca, 2013. "Competition, financial innovation and commercial bank loan portfolios," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 373-396.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:10:p:3400-:d:171764. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.