Small and vulnerable during crises? Firm size and financing constraint dynamics
利用德国行政数据，研究了经济条件变化下企业规模与融资约束的动态关系，发现金融危机并未使小企业更受冲击，而是风险较高的借款人受影响更大，小企业通过积累现金缓冲应对经济放缓。
Abstract This study analyzes the dynamics of financing constraints under changing economic conditions and the role of firm size in this context. Using administrative data from Germany, we quantify financing constraints expressed as the probability that a firm encounters excess demand or excess supply. On average, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are indeed more likely than larger firms to face excess demand for loans. Using the Great Financial Crisis as an empirical setting, we show that tightening financing conditions do not affect smaller firms disproportionally, but generally risky borrowers. Importantly, post-crisis trends in debt-ratios, profitability, investments, and employment are similar irrespective of firm size, while smaller firms respond to the economic slowdown by persistently building up cash buffers. Our results urge policymakers to consider specific characteristics of bank-dependent firms to assess their exposure to economic crises—instead of focusing on size as vulnerability criteria per se.