The recent economic and financial crisis has drawn attention to how mutual guarantee institutions (MGIs) facilitate small and medium enterprises in accessing bank financing. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we describe the structural features of the Italian market for mutual guarantees...

This paper represents a first attempt to evaluate the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the most relevant EU policy in financial terms, on social inclusion, one of the most important issues included in the Lisbon Strategy, launched by the EU in 2000. To do so, the paper focuses on...