The Small Business Credit Gap: Some New Evidence

What is the magnitude of credit constraint or credit gap affecting small businesses? This paper provides estimates of credit gap, defined as the difference between the desired and actual levels of debt for credit- constrained small businesses using the data from the National Survey of Small Business Finances. The estimated credit gap is approximately 20 percent – credit constrained small business on the average would desire 20 percent more debt. This credit gap varies considerably across industries, with service, manufacturing, and wholesale industries facing a significantly larger gap than firms in other industries. Evidence also indicates that relationship banking helps to narrow the credit gap. From a policy perspective, our results indicate that credit policies will be more effective if they are customized to industry needs.Lending Relationship, Small Business Finance, Credit Constraints

The Importance of Being Known: Relationship Banking and Credit Limits

This paper measures the importance of bank-firm relationships in obtaining higher credit “limits.” We use data from a relatively unused section of the National Survey of Small Business Finance (NSSBF, 1993) on credit limits, credit sources, and contract terms for firms with lines of credit from multiple banks. This lets us isolate the credit limit that each bank provides the same firm, eliminating the need to control for often immeasurable, unreliable, or firm-specific “soft” information. For a median Line of Credit (LOC) of $250,000, we find that a bank with a five-year information advantage provides a LOC limit that is$20,000 higher. We also find that purchase of loan and non-loan services by firm from the contracting bank affects the credit limit differently. Non-loan services increase the credit limit and loan services decrease the credit limit. Our findings confirm anecdotal claims from the small business community that relationships are vital to secure higher credit limits. We check for the robustness of our results to outliers, sample selection, and stratification across firm organization types.Lending Relationship, Small Business Finance, Credit limits

Inverse Prediction and Application of Homotopy Perturbation Method for Efficient Design of an Annular Fin with Variable Thermal Conductivity and Heat Generation

In the present work, various thermal parameters of an annular fin subjected to thermal loading are inversely estimated using differential evolution (DE) method. In order to obtain the temperature field, the second order nonlinear differential equation for heat transfer with variable thermal conductivity and internal heat generation is solved using Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM). Classical thermoelasticity approach coupled with an HPM solution for temperature field is employed for the forward solution of thermal stresses. It is interesting that the internal heat generation does not affect the radial stresses, while the temperature field and the tangential stresses are influenced by the heat generation parameters. As the tangential stresses are mainly responsible for mechanical failure due to thermal loading in an annular fin, the unknown thermal parameters are inversely estimated from a prescribed tangential stress field. The reconstructed stress fields obtained from the inverse parameters are found to be in good agreement with the actual solution

Treatment satisfaction with subcutaneous immunoglobulin replacement therapy in patients with primary immunodeficiency: a pooled analysis of six Hizentra® studies

Purpose Primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDDs) are a heterogenous group of disorders characterized by intrinsic impairment in the immune system. Most patients with PIDD require life-long immunoglobulin G replacement therapy, which has been shown to reduce the rate of infections and, related hospitalizations and reduce health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Here, treatment satisfaction and HRQOL in patients with PIDD was evaluated upon switching from intravenous (IVIG) or subcutaneous immunoglobulins (SCIGs) to 20% SCIG (Hizentra®), and during long-term steady-state Hizentra® treatment. Methods Analyses were based on two pivotal (switch) and four extension/follow-up (maintenance) Phase III studies of Hizentra® conducted in Europe (EU), Japan (JP), and the United States (US). Two validated questionnaires were used: Life Quality Index (LQI) for assessment of IgG-specific perceptions of HRQOL and Short Form 36 version 2 (SF-36v2). Results In the EU and JP switch studies, there was significant and meaningful improvement from Screening in LQI domain scores at all time points, largely driven by patients switching from IVIG to SCIG. In the EU switch study, there were also significant increases in mean SF-36v2 domain scores for Physical Function and General Health from Screening to Week 12. These improvements were observed also at Week 24. Overall, LQI and SF-36v2 domain scores were generally sustained in the maintenance studies. Conclusions These results showed that switching patients from IVIG to SCIG improves patient self-reported health status and IgG-specific HRQOL perception. The maintenance studies generally showed no deterioration of this improved health status over a long follow-up period

Infections in secondary immunodeficiency patients treated with Privigen® or Hizentra®: a retrospective US administrative claims study in patients with hematological malignancies

B cell-derived lymphoproliferative disorders are associated with secondary immunodeficiency (SID); some patients require immunoglobulin replacement therapy (IgRT) to mitigate infections. Using IQVIA’s PharMetrics® Plus database, patients with SID who received IgPro10/IgPro20 in the 12 months post-diagnosis (IgRT users) were matched to patients with SID not receiving IgRT (non-IgRT users). The risk of severe infection was compared using within-patient change from baseline to follow-up as well as between cohorts. Overall, 277 IgRT users were matched to 1019 non-IgRT users. Before IgRT, more IgRT users experienced any bacterial infection (88.4% vs. 72.9%; p<.0001) or ≥1 severe bacterial infection (SBI) (42.2% vs. 31.8%; p=.0011) vs. non-IgRT users. During follow-up, risk of SBI among IgRT users (21.7%) reached parity with non-IgRT users (21.2%). IgRT was associated with a reduction in SBIs to levels comparable with the lower ‘baseline infection risk’ of non-IgRT users. These criteria help define SID patients who may benefit from IgRT

Risk factors for severe infections in secondary immunodeficiency: a retrospective US administrative claims study in patients with hematological malignancies

Real-world data are lacking to identify patients with secondary immunodeficiency (SID) who may benefit most from anti-infective interventions. This retrospective analysis used the IQVIA PharMetrics® Plus database to assess baseline characteristics associated with risk of severe infections post-SID diagnosis in patients with hematological malignancies. In 4066 patients included, the mean number of any and severe infections per patient in the one-year pre-SID diagnosis period was 9.5 and 0.7, respectively. Post-SID diagnosis, the mean annualized number of any and severe infections was 19.1 and 1.5, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified a threshold (cutoff) of three bacterial infections at baseline as optimally predictive of severe infections post-SID diagnosis. Multivariate analysis indicated that hospitalizations, infections (≥3), or antibiotic use pre-SID diagnosis were predictive of severe infections post-SID diagnosis. Evaluation of these risk factors could inform clinical decisions regarding which patients may benefit from prophylactic anti-infective treatment, including immunoglobulin replacement if warranted

Association of the PHACTR1/EDN1 genetic locus with spontaneous coronary artery dissection

Background: Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an increasingly recognized cause of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) afflicting predominantly younger to middle-aged women. Observational studies have reported a high prevalence of extracoronary vascular anomalies, especially fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) and a low prevalence of coincidental cases of atherosclerosis. PHACTR1/EDN1 is a genetic risk locus for several vascular diseases, including FMD and coronary artery disease, with the putative causal noncoding variant at the rs9349379 locus acting as a potential enhancer for the endothelin-1 (EDN1) gene. Objectives: This study sought to test the association between the rs9349379 genotype and SCAD. Methods: Results from case control studies from France, United Kingdom, United States, and Australia were analyzed to test the association with SCAD risk, including age at first event, pregnancy-associated SCAD (P-SCAD), and recurrent SCAD. Results: The previously reported risk allele for FMD (rs9349379-A) was associated with a higher risk of SCAD in all studies. In a meta-analysis of 1,055 SCAD patients and 7,190 controls, the odds ratio (OR) was 1.67 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.50 to 1.86) per copy of rs9349379-A. In a subset of 491 SCAD patients, the OR estimate was found to be higher for the association with SCAD in patients without FMD (OR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.53 to 2.33) than in SCAD cases with FMD (OR: 1.60; 95% CI: 1.28 to 1.99). There was no effect of genotype on age at first event, P-SCAD, or recurrence. Conclusions: The first genetic risk factor for SCAD was identified in the largest study conducted to date for this condition. This genetic link may contribute to the clinical overlap between SCAD and FMD

Exports and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation Using Panel Data

An augmented neoclassical production function developed by Feder (1982) is used to explore the presence of marginal externality effects of exports and intersectoral factor productivity differentials between exporting and nonexporting sectors. The parametric differences among countries are investigated. We estimate coefficients for marginal externalities of exports and the intersectoral factor productivity differentials using cross-country and panel data for 69 low- and middle-income countries. The fixed and random effects models are used to appraise the existence of parametric differences among the nations. This paper also examines the robustness of the linkages between export-expansion and economic growth by using different levels of aggregation of cross-country and panel data sets

Patterns of Debt Use in Small Businesses: A Non-Parametric Analysis

This paper uses non-parametric techniques to examine patterns of debt use by small firms and how such patterns differ across firm categories. The methodological goal is to use the richness of the firm level data and allow convincing presentations with minimum of assumptions. The procedures used provide easily comprehendible graphical descriptions of the data. The procedures augment what can be discerned from descriptive statistics by accounting for differential weights and allowing for clustering that is a native feature of cross-sectional data. We also investigate how firms could benefit if credit availability improves. Though a model-based analysis would be required to provide a detailed analysis, our analysis suggests that greater credit availability will benefit all firms. Firms with low levels of equity will be better off as their credit constraints will be less binding, while firms with high levels of equity will benefit from acquiring more debt