Regional divides in firms’ take-up of bank debt moratoria and public guarantee schemes during the pandemic in Italy

Davide Arnaudo, Michele Cascarano, Rosalia Greco (), Valentina Michelangeli, Litterio Mirenda and Davide Revelli ()
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Rosalia Greco: Bank of Italy
Davide Revelli: Bank of Italy

No 736, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: At the onset of the pandemic, the Italian government introduced a bank debt moratorium and a public guarantee scheme to support firms’ liquidity; additional private moratoria were introduced by banks and other financial institutions. The take-up of such measures in the June 2020-December 2021 period was heterogeneous across areas. Such differences can only be partially explained by heterogeneity in the regions’ economic and productive structure: differences in firms’ observable characteristics can explain the differential take-up in debt moratoria, while the probability of obtaining a publicly guaranteed loan is larger for Southern firms. Coeteris paribus, aid intensity - i.e. the share of a beneficiary’s bank debt subject to the support measures - is higher for Southern firms in the case of debt moratoria, but not for publicly guaranteed loans. This regional divide may reflect a relatively higher benefit associated to the measures for Southern firms, which are subject, on average, to tighter credit access conditions.

Keywords: regional divide; Southern Italy; credit access; debt moratorium; public guarantee; Covid-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 G38 H32 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban
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