SMEs’ growth under financing constraints and banking markets integration in the euro area
研究了融资约束和银行业市场一体化对欧元区11国中小企业增长的影响，发现融资约束阻碍增长，而市场一体化促进增长，且融资约束的缓解是关键传导渠道。
We explore the impact of financing constraints and the role of banking markets integration on the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The data are drawn from the European Central Bank/Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (ECB/SAFE) on SMEs’ access to finance aggregated at the country level for the largest 11 euro area countries during 2009–2015. Our findings suggest that financing constraints hamper SMEs’ growth and that the effect is stronger for perceived, rather than actual, financing constraints. On the other hand, increased banking markets integration in the euro area appears to foster SMEs’ growth. Furthermore, we found that the reduction in financing constraints is crucial in the transmission channel from banking markets integration to growth. This effect appears significantly stronger when integration is measured by the intensity of cross-border lending than through convergence in interest rates to loans to nonfinancial corporations.