Firms’ financing constraints: do perceptions match the actual situation?

Annalisa Ferrando and Klaas Mulier

No 1577, Working Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: This paper uses a non-parametric matching procedure to match survey replies to balance sheet information. It draws on the SAFE survey on access to finance for a sample of 11886 firms in the euro area which are matched with their nearest neighbour in an extended data-set with balance sheet information on 2.3 million firms. We investigate the role of firm characteristics with respect to the experience of facing financing obstacles in the period 2009-2011. We distinguish between firms' perceived financing constraints and actual financing constraints. We find that more pro table firms are less likely to face actual financing constraints. Also firms with more working capital and lower leverage ratios are less likely to be actually financially constrained, however profitability measures seem to be more robust. Firms are more likely to perceive access to finance problematic when they have more debt with short term maturity. Finally, firm age, but not size, is important in explaining both the perceived and the actual financial constraints. JEL Classification: E22, G30, G10, O16, K40

Keywords: financial constraints; SMEs; statistical matching of data; survey data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-law and nep-sbm
Note: 235236
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Firms’ Financing Constraints: Do Perceptions Match the Actual Situation? (2015)
Working Paper: Firms’ financing constraints: Do perceptions match the actual situation? (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20131577

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