IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v42y2021i6p171-198.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Energy Efficient Firms Have Better Access to Finance?

Author

Listed:
  • Philipp-Bastian Brutscher
  • Pauline Ravillard
  • Gregor Semieniuk

Abstract

Improving energy efficiency quickly is key to mitigating climate change and requires improvements implemented in firms. As these require upfront investments, good access to external finance is important. Theory suggests that information asymmetries may prevent lenders from including energy efficiency into their lending assessment, even though higher energy efficiency increases firm cost-com-petitiveness and its collateral value. Empirically, little is known about the impact of energy efficiency on access to external finance. For the first time, we examine empirically the effect of a firm’s higher energy efficiency on their ability to obtain loans in European Union countries by exploiting a unique firm-level dataset. We find that energy efficiency has no effect on the ability of a firm to obtain external financing compared to other indicators on the financial or operational health of the firm. The results reveal an unexploited potential for energy efficiency policy to signal when firms are energy efficient.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp-Bastian Brutscher & Pauline Ravillard & Gregor Semieniuk, 2021. "Do Energy Efficient Firms Have Better Access to Finance?," The Energy Journal, , vol. 42(6), pages 171-198, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:42:y:2021:i:6:p:171-198
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.42.6.pbru
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.42.6.pbru
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.42.6.pbru?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ellis Scharfenaker & Gregor Semieniuk, 2017. "A Statistical Equilibrium Approach to the Distribution of Profit Rates," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(3), pages 465-499, July.
    2. Lee, Neil & Sameen, Hiba & Cowling, Marc, 2015. "Access to finance for innovative SMEs since the financial crisis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 370-380.
    3. Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), 2010. "Handbook of the Economics of Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    4. Annalisa Ferrando & Klaas Mulier, 2015. "Firms’ Financing Constraints: Do Perceptions Match the Actual Situation?," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 46(1), pages 87-117.
    5. 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.
    6. Meredith Fowlie & Michael Greenstone & Catherine Wolfram, 2018. "Do Energy Efficiency Investments Deliver? Evidence from the Weatherization Assistance Program," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1597-1644.
    7. Ray C. Rist & Marie-Helene Boily & Frederic R. Martin, 2013. "Development Evaluation in Times of Turbulence : Dealing with Crises that Endanger Our Future," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13265, August.
    8. Jiří Hřebíček & Jana Soukopová & Michael Štencl & Oldřich Trenz, 2011. "Integration of economic, environmental, social and corporate governance performance and reporting in enterprises," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 59(7), pages 157-166.
    9. J. Scott Long & Jeremy Freese, 2006. "Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables using Stata, 2nd Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LLC, edition 2, number long2, December.
    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. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Donati, Cristiana & Spagnolo, Nicola, 2023. "Small and medium sized European firms and energy saving measures: The role of financing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Cristiana Donati & Nicola Spagnolo, 2022. "Small and Medium Sized European Firms and Energy Efficiency Measures: A Probit Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 10066, CESifo.

    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. Sasan Bakhtiari & Robert Breunig & Lisa Magnani & Jacquelyn Zhang, 2020. "Financial Constraints and Small and Medium Enterprises: A Review," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(315), pages 506-523, December.
    2. Giraudo, Emanuele & Giudici, Giancarlo & Grilli, Luca, 2019. "Entrepreneurship policy and the financing of young innovative companies: Evidence from the Italian Startup Act," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    3. Cowling, Marc & Ughetto, Elisa & Lee, Neil, 2018. "The innovation debt penalty: Cost of debt, loan default, and the effects of a public loan guarantee on high-tech firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 166-176.
    4. Anabela Santos & Michele Cincera, 2022. "Determinants of financing constraints," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1427-1439, March.
    5. Rahman Ashiqur & Rahman M. Twyeafur & Belas Jaroslav, 2017. "Determinants of SME Finance: Evidence from Three Central European Countries," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 17(3), pages 263-285, September.
    6. Dowling, Michael & O’Gorman, Colm & Puncheva, Petya & Vanwalleghem, Dieter, 2019. "Trust and SME attitudes towards equity financing across Europe," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1-1.
    7. Didier, Tatiana & Levine, Ross & Llovet Montanes, Ruth & Schmukler, Sergio L., 2021. "Capital market financing and firm growth," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    8. Moulick, Raj Kumar, 2020. "Determinants predicting credit accessibility of SME: Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, , vol. 25(03), pages 01-09, July.
    9. Gabriele Angori & David Aristei, 2020. "Heterogeneity and state dependence in firms’ access to credit: Microevidence from the euro area," SEEDS Working Papers 0220, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised Feb 2020.
    10. Sarah Armitage & Noël Bakhtian & Adam Jaffe, 2024. "Innovation Market Failures and the Design of New Climate Policy Instruments," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(1), pages 4-48.
    11. Thomas Poufinas & Maria Polychronou, 2018. "Alternative investments as a financing tool for small and medium enterprises," Bulletin of Applied Economics, Risk Market Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 13-44.
    12. Muhammad Arif & Mudassar Hasan & Ahmed Shafique Joyo & Christopher Gan & Sazali Abidin, 2020. "Formal Finance Usage and Innovative SMEs: Evidence from ASEAN Countries," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, September.
    13. Edoardo Ferrucci & Roberto Guida & Valentina Meliciani, 2021. "Financial constraints and the growth and survival of innovative start‐ups: An analysis of Italian firms," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 27(2), pages 364-386, March.
    14. Maria Luisa Mancusi & Andrea Vezzulli, 2014. "R&D AND CREDIT RATIONING IN SMEs," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(3), pages 1153-1172, July.
    15. Jain, Richa & Reindorp, Matthew & Chockalingam, Arun, 2023. "Buyer-backed purchase-order financing for SME supplier with uncertain yield," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(2), pages 758-772.
    16. Dominykas Poderys, 2015. "Does Access to External Finance Affect Development of Small and Medium Enterprises and Economic Growth?," European Journal of Business Science and Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 43-53.
    17. Gupta, Jairaj & Gregoriou, Andros, 2018. "Impact of market-based finance on SMEs failure," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 13-25.
    18. Fernandez, Viviana, 2017. "The finance of innovation in Latin America," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 37-47.
    19. Lee, Neil & Brown, Ross, 2016. "Innovation, SMEs and the liability of distance: the demand and supply of bank funding in peripheral UK regions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66215, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Chau Le & Bach Nguyen & Vinh Vo, 2024. "Do intangible assets help SMEs in underdeveloped markets gain access to external finance?—the case of Vietnam," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 833-855, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy efficiency; Access to external finance; EU firms; Information asymmetry; Building energy consumption;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F0 - International Economics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:enejou:v:42:y:2021:i:6:p:171-198. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.