Small credit, real impact: Lessons on Lazio’s Small Credit Fund

Oecd

No 2026/08, OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: This paper evaluates the Small Credit Fund (Fondo Piccolo Credito), a regional financial instrument introduced by the Lazio Region (Italy) to address credit market gaps faced by micro and small enterprises. Using administrative data for 2017–2023 and a difference in differences approach, the evaluation finds strong financial additionality: subsidised loans increased long term debt without crowding out other financing. The programme improved firm survival and supported higher investment, particularly among smaller and more financially constrained firms. Short term declines in profitability and credit ratings highlight temporary trade offs during the investment and repayment phase. The paper concludes with recommendations to refine programme design, targeting and monitoring, with lessons for similar instruments across OECD countries.

Keywords: credit constraints; Italy; Lazio; policy evaluation; regional development; Small business finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 G28 H81 L26 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06-15
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1787/a37305fa-en (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:cfeaaa:2026/08-en

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Papers from OECD Publishing Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().