In this paper we present a comparative analysis of Nordic countries’ financial systems and consider in particular the recent growth of Nordic venture capital industries. We document that the Nordic countries’ financial systems display several similarities that have characterized their...

In den letzten zwei Jahren wurde von vielen eine Kreditklemme für die deutschen Unternehmen als reales Problem, oder zumindest als akutes makroökonomisches Risiko, angesehen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung anhand der Bilanzdaten aus dem Jahresabschlussdatenpool der Deutschen Bundesbank macht...

El actual contexto se caracteriza por restricciones en el acceso al crédito, aún habiendo fondos disponibles en tal sentido. Las pequeñas y medianas empresas necesitan del crédito para sostener inversiones en activos fijos y de trabajo y generar empleo, pero se les dificulta obtenerlo por...

The paper provides evidence on what affects at the margin the cost and availability of bank credit for firms in Argentina. We study in particular how banks use different pieces of private and public information to screen firms and overcome informational asymmetries in the credit market. Some...

This paper summarizes and discusses new evidence on the nature, extent, evolution and consequences of financing constraints in Latin America; this evidence is drawn from a recent series of papers. The countries covered are Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Uruguay. All the new...

This paper develops a model showing that inefficient legal protections disproportionately increase financial restrictions for creditors that have less wealth. Due to fixed monitoring costs in equilibrium, banks will not monitor small firms, and therefore these firms will adopt risky technologies...

We present a DSGE model where firms optimally choose among alternative instruments of external finance. The model is used to explain the evolving composition of corporate debt during the financial crisis of 2008-09, namely the observed shift from bank finance to bond finance, at a time when the...

For central banks, the monitoring of financing conditions plays a pivotal role in assessing the actual transmission of monetary policy impulses to borrowers. This paper presents in detail some of the indicators and data used by the ECB to assess financing conditions in the euro area. It also...