Financial constraints, institutional quality and import trade flows: An empirical investigation on Italian manufacturing SMEs
研究意大利制造业中小企业2015-2019年进口数据，发现法院合同执行不力会加剧市场不确定性，抑制外国供应商交易，并验证了司法质量作为制度壁垒阻碍中小企业国际化。
This work investigates the relation between local institutions and international business, considering the Italian manufacturing industry and SMEs’ import trade flows between 2015 and 2019. In detail, we test the hypothesis of whether courts’ inability to enforce contracts can amplify uncertainty on the market, discouraging foreign suppliers from performing international transactions. We interpret these expectations in terms of financial constraints, imagining that the quality of a legal system limits firms’ access to local financial resources, which are essential to guarantee such operations. The proposed hypothesis is assessed considering alternative explanations that might characterize importers: absence of ex-ante business networks on the global market (i), expected bankruptcy risks (ii) and asymmetric information (iii). Results are consistent to several robustness tests and, according to the collected evidence, we cannot reject the hypothesis that judicial quality might represent an institutional barrier to local SMEs, preventing their international business strategies. • Courts’ inability to enforce contracts can amplify uncertainty in the market. • Empirical analysis of Italian manufacturing industry and SMEs’ import trade flows. • Legal uncertainty is a barrier that prevents SMEs’ international business strategies.