The recent financial crisis has induced firms to turn increasingly to financing sources other than bank credit, and banks to boost their income from non-lending services. This paper provides some evidence concerning possibility and convenience for Italian banks to expand the supply of financial...

This paper analyzes firms' difficulties in accessing credit before and during the crisis, by focusing on two of their characteristics: financial fragility and growth prospects. Our econometric analysis indicates that fragile financial conditions were associated with a much higher than average...

Italian Abstract: Il lavoro analizza i divari territoriali nell’accesso al credito delle imprese tra il 2008 e il 2019 e descrive il funzionamento del mercato del credito nel Mezzogiorno. Il settore produttivo meridionale è caratterizzato da un maggiore rischio di credito; anche a parità di...

This paper analyses the main microeconomic determinants of Italian banks' purchases of sovereign debt securities from 2007 to 2013, with special reference to their balance-sheet conditions. The analysis distinguishes two phases of the crisis – the period following the Lehman Brothers collapse...