Prior literature shows that firms are less likely to pay dividends to preserve financial flexibility when facing greater competitive threats from rival firms in product markets. However, the real effects of dividend policy on product market outcomes are not widely understood. This paper...

In an approach analogous to Rajan and Zingales (1998), we examine how the ability to access long-term debt affects firm-level growth volatility. We find that firms in industries with stronger preference to use long-term finance relative to short-term finance experience lower growth volatility in...

We assess the impact of credit constraints on investment, inventories and other working capital and firm growth with a large panel of small and medium-sized enterprises from 12 European countries for the period 2014-2016. The data come from the Survey on the access to finance of enterprises...

This paper analyzes firms' difficulties in accessing credit before and during the crisis, by focusing on two of their characteristics: financial fragility and growth prospects. Our econometric analysis indicates that fragile financial conditions were associated with a much higher than average...

Purpose: Corporate governance in essence is designed to lead to economic growth. Nevertheless, despite placing great emphasis on promoting corporate governance practices over the years, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have so far achieved insignificant or no economic growth. This, however,...