This article uses European Central Bank (ECB) survey data to assess whether gender matters in the small firms’ financial structure and access to credit. Firms owned or managed by women (female firms) use smaller amounts and less heterogeneous sources of external finance than their male...

After the inception of the euro, the real economy in most member countries remained dependent on credit by domestic banks, which increasingly funded themselves through cross-border interbank funding. We find that this pattern of 'double-decker' banking integration exposed domestic banks to sharp...