Microfinance has been heralded as an effective way to address imperfections in credit markets. From a theoretical perspective, however, the success of microfinance contracts has puzzling elements. In particular, the group-based mechanisms often employed are vulnerable to free-riding and...

We estimate the effect of demand and price uncertainty on firms’ investment decisions from a panel of manufacturing firms. Uncertainty measures are derived from firms’ subjective qualitative expectations. They are close to their theoretical counterparts, the variances of future demand and...

Competitiveness at the firm level is a subject of interest not only to managers and policy makers but also academics. An effective functioning under the conditions of new economy requires from the enterprises to develop their core capabilities and talents along with the ability to quickly...

Celem artykulu jest analiza pozycji konkurencyjnej najwiekszych przedsiebiorstw branzy budowlanej z wojewodztwa podlaskiego, na tle sektora w latach 2010 - 2012. Do analizy wykorzystany zostal tzw. Radar Nagashimy, pozwalajacy okreslic w sposob syntetyczny wzgledne ksztaltowanie sie wybranego...

We explore how financial constraints distort the entry decisions among otherwise productive entrepreneurs and limit growth of promising young firms. A model of liquidity-constrained entrepreneurs suggests that the easing of credit constraints can induce more entry of firms with greater long-run...

Many basic economic theories with perfectly functioning markets do not predict the existence of the vast number of microenterprises readily observed across the world. We put forward a model that illuminates why financial and managerial capital constraints may impede experimentation, and thus...

We partnered with a micro-lender in Mali to randomize credit offers at the village level. Then, in no-loan control villages, we gave cash grants to randomly selected households. These grants led to higher agricultural investments and profits, thus showing that liquidity constraints bind with...

Kurt A. Hafner, Bayerisches Staatsinstitut für Hochschulforschung und Hochschulplanung, München, stellt die Ergebnisse einer im Auftrag der Europäischen Kommission durchgeführten Studie zu Firmenclustern und Innovationstätigkeit deutscher Unternehmen vor. Die Studie zeigt, dass der...

In this paper we investigate to what extent firm investment in transition countries is sensitive to internal finance. We use accounts data of over 4000 companies in four countries at different stages of transition. We find that firms in Bulgaria and Romania are less sensitive to internal...

We model the channels through which public expenditure on infrastructure influences firm value and shapes its investment decisions via both adjustment costs and marginal profitability of capital. We test these hypotheses by using a large panel of Italian firms. Empirical results show that...