Can firms grow without credit?: evidence from the Euro Area, 2005-2011: a quantile panel analysis

This paper explores the effects of bank credit on firm growth before and after the recent financial crisis, taking into account different structural characteristics of banking sectors and domestic economies. Panel quantile analysis is used on a sample of 2075 euro area firms in 2005-2011. The post-2008 credit crunch is found to seriously affect only small, slow-growth firms and especially those operating in concentrated and domestic-dominated banking systems, and in riskier and less financially developed economies. Large, high-growth firms seem to be able to find alternative financial sources and, thus, may act as carriers and facilitators of a credit-less recovery

Gibrat’s law and persistence of growth in Greek manufacturing

Gibrat’s law, Persistence of growth, Size groups, Age groups, L11, L60, L26,

What determines the growth of micro firms in the euro area?

This paper explores the diverging impact of country- and firm-specific factors on the growth of micro firms in the euro area (2005-2011) along different growth quantiles. While bank credit and firm sales seem to be important for all size groups and quantiles, micro firms are found to be particularly vulnerable to country-specific conditions, especially financial stability, country risk, banking concentration and post-crisis location in the European periphery, the most exposed ones being those with the slowest growth

A lasting crisis affects R&D decisions of smaller firms: The Greek experience

We use the prolonged Greek crisis as a case study to understand how a lasting economic shock affects the innovation strategies of firms in economies with moderate innovation activities. Adopting the 3-stage CDM model, we explore the link between R&D, innovation, and productivity for different size groups of Greek manufacturing firms during the prolonged crisis. At the first stage, we find that the continuation of the crisis is harmful for the R&D engagement of smaller firms while it increased the willingness for R&D activities among the larger ones. At the second stage, among smaller firms the knowledge production remains unaffected by R&D investments, while among larger firms the R&D decision is positively correlated with the probability of producing innovation, albeit the relationship is weakened as the crisis continues. At the third stage, innovation output benefits only larger firms in terms of labor productivity, while the innovation-productivity nexus is insignificant for smaller firms during the lasting crisis

Intra-Industry Growth Dynamics in the Greek Services Sector: Firm-Level Estimates for ICT-Producing, ICT-Using, and Non-ICT Industries

Gibrat’s Law, Information and communication technology, Persistence of growth, Services industries, L11, L80,