Advisors for micro-entrepreneurs: is one as good as another in accessing alternative finance?
基于意大利微型企业的大数据，研究发现只有专业财务顾问能显著提高企业获取替代融资的概率，而其他类型顾问无效；金融素养高的企业家更倾向于寻求高质量专业建议。
Abstract Using a novel large database of Italian micro-entrepreneurs, we investigate how different sources of external business advice affect access to alternative finance. We distinguish three categories of external business advice: professional financial, professional non-financial, and non-professional. We also test whether financial knowledge of micro-entrepreneurs enhances their advice seeking for financial decision-making. We find that the use of alternative financial instruments increases when external business advisors are used, but some are more useful than others. Only professional financial advice is shown to increase the probability of accessing alternative finance by micro-enterprises, while non-professional and professional non-financial advice does not have the same effect. We also find that being more financially literate increases the probability that micro-entrepreneurs seek advice from highly professional sources, i.e., objective financial knowledge helps shape the quality of financial advice requested.