This paper traces the changing contribution of small firms to manufacturing in Japan and the UK between 1972 and 1992. It shows that there are significant and important differences between the two countries, although in both cases small firms provided an increasing share of the total stock of...

The ability of the self-employed to create additional job opportunities is a fundamental concern given the huge increases in public resources targeted at new venture creation in the U.K. and other countries since 1979. This study initially concentrates on identifying differences in the personal...

This paper uses time-series analysis to model explicitly the take-up rate of the UK Government's Loan Guarantee Scheme over the 1980s. In doing so we consider the rationale for the scheme in the context of empirical and theoretical research into the financing of small businesses and in...

Loan guarantee schemes are an integral part of SME policy in both developed and developing countries. Yet little has been done to evaluate such programmes, particularly in terms of their ability to correct for capital market imperfections. This paper uses individual loan data from some 42,000 UK...

In this paper we investigate the relative importance of firm and market effects on the profitability of a sample of independent, unquoted U.K. firms over the period 1991--1993. Specifically, we attempt to isolate the effects of internal governance, given that the typical firm is closely held in...

An attempt has been made to examine some aspects of transaction structure of the small business sector in Japanese manufacturing. It has been found that there are some interesting findings in the industrial organization of the sector; (1) In the transactions of intermediate goods with...