Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have difficulties in accessing finance because of information asymmetry and a lack of collateral. A credit guarantee scheme is a suitable method to unlock lending to SMEs; however, it involves SMEs paying a fee, which needs to account for their risk. The...

Credit Guarantee Schemes (CGSs) are a widely used policy tool to ease access to finance by SMEs, which, in some countries, ramped up in the aftermath of the 2008-09 financial crisis. The present study aims to improve understanding about the role, impact and sustainability of CGSs, by...

An important theoretical literature motivates collateral as a mechanism that mitigates adverse selection, credit rationing, and other inefficiencies that arise when borrowers hold ex ante private information. There is no clear empirical evidence regarding the central implication of this...