Ilario Favaretto

Financial Models of Small Innovative Firms: An Empirical Investigation

This paper aims at analysing financial models of innovative firms in Italy by means of a sample of firms located in the Marche region. While it is well known that innovative firms have different financial needs and more severe problems in accessing funds than traditional firms, our analysis shows that only a small number of the interviewed firms have faced problems in raising external funds for innovation, even during the current economic and financial crisis. Policy recommendations point towards the improvement of firms’ levels of financial culture and the dilution of firms’ ownership by means of external private equity.

Credit availability and propensity to innovate of small and medium enterprises

We aim to analyze the impact of credit availability on firms’ probability to innovate. Using detailed information on more than five thousand five hundred credit lines to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), we find that innovative activities are positively affected by measures of bank loan availability. Further, estimates also show that firms located in an industrial district have higher probability to be innovative than other firms. Our results support the idea that Italian institutions should undertake and reinforce an economic policy oriented to sustain the access to credit of SMEs as a key element for the growth and development of innovative firms.

The Italian Small- and Medium-Sized Firms in the Aftermath of the Crisis

The outbreak of the recent crisis that began at the end of the last decade eventually uncovered the problems that almost all Western economies had been able to camouflage thanks to economic growth fueled by an unprecedented expansion in the financial industry. Within this context the Italian economy is a special case: its annual growth rate has been lower than that of its traditional partners and competitors for the last 15 years. Even the most optimistic forecasts for the next several years do not indicate significant improvements in the Italian competitive position. The success it enjoyed following its participation in the European Monetary Union brought to the fore the structural backwardness of the Italian economy, which is the main reason behind its low growth rates. The complexity and costs investors face when starting a business, the complexity and inefficiency of the fiscal, credit, and the legal systems, the difficulties associated with investor protection are only some of the obstacles that entrepreneurs face at the time of investing in Italy. More recently, we need to add a new weakness, that – until a few years ago – was considered a key factor in its success, i.e., the size of Italian firms.

Imprese innovative ed accesso al credito. Un’indagine empirica

Questo lavoro mira ad analizzare l’accesso al credito delle imprese innovative testando l’impatto della natura innovativa delle imprese: (a) sul costo del credito bancario; (b) sulla probabilita di restrizione del credito. L’analisi empirica utilizza le informazioni ottenute dall’unificazione di due database distinti e di diversa derivazione. Il primo database contiene informazioni di natura finanziaria su oltre 15.000 linee di credito concesse da un’istituzione bancaria ad imprese di diversa tipologia dimensionale e giuridica operanti in 23 settori industriali. Il secondo database identifica le imprese che svolgono attivita innovativa. Le stime econometriche mostrano che le imprese innovative hanno una minor probabilita di restrizione del credito rispetto a quelle tradizionali. L’innovazione si potrebbe dunque configurare una via per il superamento del credit crunch. Classificazione

Gli effetti della distanza su alcune componenti della relazione creditizia. Evidenze empiriche

Nel presente lavoro viene affrontata la tematica della localizzazione delle imprese e delle distanze geografiche che intercorrono con il loro sportello bancario di riferimento con lo scopo di verificarne gli effetti sulle condizioni contrattuali all’interno dei mercati locali del credito. In particolare, si cerca di individuare il soggetto che sostiene i costi generati dalle inefficienze dovute alla distanza (sportello od impresa) e la natura dei costi: trasporto o di informazione. I risultati evidenziano l’importanza del ruolo esercitato dalle distanze sui diversi elementi della decisione creditizia rilevando come un incremento della distanza bancaimpresa generi un aumento dei costi per quest’ultima, mentre la natura dei costi sembrerebbe ricadere su quelli d’informazione.