Agricultural transformation that involves the production of high-value food products and post-harvest processing is high on the policy agenda in many developing countries. A surge in the demand for high value and processed food products observed in Asia and Latin America is also happening in...

We explore the sources of racial disparities in small business lending by studying the $806 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was designed to support small business jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. PPP loans were administered by private lenders but federally guaranteed, largely...

We show that since 2007, there was a large and persistent shift in the composition of lenders to small firms. Large banks impacted by the real estate prices collapse systematically contracted their credit to all small firms throughout the U.S.. However, healthy banks expanded their operations...

Current theoretical and empirical research suggests that small banks have a comparative advantage in processing soft information and delivering relationship lending. The most comprehensive analysis of this view found using U.S. data that smaller SMEs borrow from smaller banks and smaller banks...

We focus on the economies of the North Atlantic Core during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and find that an impressive variety of local financial institutions emerged to supply the needs of SMEs wherever there was sufficient demand for their services. Although these intermediaries...

In this paper, we investigate how personal bankruptcy law affects small firms' access to credit. When a firm is unincorporated, its debts are personal liabilities of the firm's owner, so that lending to the firm is legally equivalent to lending to its owner. If the firm fails, the owner has an...

This review of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) finance support programs aims to enhance the efficiency of SME finance support in Chile. Chile's good economic policies have successfully promoted growth, but inequality has remained high. Supporting access to finance for SMEs is an...

The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have articulated a vision for sustainable economic development that highlights the need to diversify the productive base to reduce dependence on the hydrocarbon sector and create more employment opportunities for their young and growing...