Expectations of access to debt finance for SMEs in times of uncertainty:Evidence from the Brexit Referendum

This articles examines small and medium enterprises\u2019 (SMEs) expectations of access to debt finance in times of uncertainty. In particular, we studied whether relationship lending affects British SMEs\u2019 concerns about future access to debt finance after the UK referendum on European Union membership (the so-called Brexit referendum). By using a unique survey, we found that relationship lending significantly reduces SMEs\u2019 expectations of being financially constrained, although the same does not hold for firms engaging in product innovation. Our results are robust after controlling for accounting information disclosure and for the relationship between the expectation of access to debt finance, the prospect of growth, and changes in business strategies

Banking on industry: the impact of financial services on regional industrial structure and development

We investigate the extent to which local banking market characteristics can explain where small enterprises (SEs) are located and how they thrive. We start from a simple theory that explains the channels along which local banking market structure can affect the growth of SEs. Subsequently, we make use of a highly detailed data set, exploit unique features of the Italian banking system and find that the structure of the banking system explains the regional distribution of SEs in Italy, in particular through the historical presence of small banks

Financial Centres’ Competitiveness and Economic Convergence: Evidence from the EU Regions

This study analyses the gaps in financial centres’ competitiveness and their impact on regional economic convergence in 23 EU Member States during the period of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). In particular, we explore the economic convergence and divergence patterns among regions from two different perspectives across the selected EU Member States and within each country. From a methodological viewpoint, we apply a fully non-parametric framework to the club convergence model and address the endogeneity problem between financial centres’ competitiveness and regional economic convergence. Our results show that the large and internationally-oriented financial centres experienced a diverging trend in terms of the competitiveness of financial centres’ business environment during the peak of the crisis. We also find evidence that the convergence of financial centres reduces regional economic inequalities between the regions where financial centres are located. In contrast, the increase in the competitiveness of financial centres only serves to widen existing inequalities at the national level. Finally, we examine and discuss the impact of competitiveness drivers of financial centres on the convergence pattern of EU regions

Competition and risk-taking in investment banking

How does competition affect the investment banking business and the risks individual institutions are exposed to? Using a large sample of investment banks operating in seven developed economies over 1997-2014, we apply a panel VAR model to examine the relationships between competition and risk without assuming any a priori restrictions. Our main finding is that investment banks’ higher risk exposure, measured as a long-term capital-at-risk and return volatility, was facilitated by greater competitive pressures especially for full service investment banks but also for boutique investment banks. Overall, we find some evidence that more competition leads to more fragility before and during the recent financial crisis

HyperProbe consortium: innovate tumour neurosurgery with innovative photonic solutions

Recent advancements in imaging technologies (MRI, PET, CT, among others) have significantly improved clinical localisation of lesions of the central nervous system (CNS) before surgery, making possible for neurosurgeons to plan and navigate away from functional brain locations when removing tumours, such as gliomas. However, neuronavigation in the surgical management of brain tumours remains a significant challenge, due to the inability to maintain accurate spatial information of pathological and healthy locations intraoperatively. To answer this challenge, the HyperProbe consortium have been put together, consisting of a team of engineers, physicists, data scientists and neurosurgeons, to develop an innovative, all-optical, intraoperative imaging system based on (i) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) for rapid, multiwavelength spectral acquisition, and (ii) artificial intelligence (AI) for image reconstruction, morpho-chemical characterisation and molecular fingerprint recognition. Our HyperProbe system will (1) map, monitor and quantify biomolecules of interest in cerebral physiology; (2) be handheld, cost-effective and user-friendly; (3) apply AI-based methods for the reconstruction of the hyperspectral images, the analysis of the spatio-spectral data and the development and quantification of novel biomarkers for identification of glioma and differentiation from functional brain tissue. HyperProbe will be validated and optimised with studies in optical phantoms, in vivo against gold standard modalities in neuronavigational imaging, and finally we will provide proof of principle of its performances during routine brain tumour surgery on patients. HyperProbe aims at providing functional and structural information on biomarkers of interest that is currently missing during neuro-oncological interventions

Do banking architecture and EU regional policy matter for SME growth?

Do small firms need small banks? Why is it important to have a diverse financial ecosystem for Small Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)? Can European regional policies represent a valid alternative for SMEs to the local financial systems, especially in peripheral regions? And under which circumstances? This book discusses all these issues and addresses these questions by collecting several strands of data, through new analysis, but also by reviewing the relevant literature on the topic

The quantitative analysis of the Research Excellence Framework effectiveness in evaluating the British universities’ third mission

Since 1986 the performance of the UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), including all British universities, has been evaluated using the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) or the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the latter since 2014. Such evaluations are the foundation of performance-based research funding systems, and this has been the case in the UK. This research focuses on the effectiveness of REF 2014 in evaluating the HEIs’ third mission, i.e. the level of knowledge and technology transfer. We build two models that share the same inputs, but have different outputs. The inputs include variables that represent key information on the HEI, such as the numbers of academic staff and students. The output of the first model is based on the REF scores of the HEI as assigned by the REF expert panels. The output of the second model is based on a number of variables that describe the level of engagement of the HEI’s staff in the third mission activities. Subsequently, we compare the performance of the two models to analyse how effectively the REF evaluates the level of knowledge and technology transfer. The data used in this research comes from the Higher Education Information Database for Institutions (HEIDI) and covers the period from 2007 to 2013. We also use the REF 2014 results provided by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)

Branching, lending and competition in Italian banking

With the liberalization of legal barriers to bank branching in the early 1990s, both market structure and competitive conditions in Italy changed profoundly as banks expanded their branching networks. This paper provides novel empirical evidence on how changes of the branch network structure at the province level affect the performance and lending activity of banks across the period 1993-2011. In particular, we adopt two modes of analysis. The first focuses on the impact of diversification strategies at the province level on performance, lending and funding strategies. While the second one examines how the increase of big banks’ local presence affects single-market bank performance and lending strategies. Our results show that geographical diversification strategies can reduce performance, the adjusted Lerner Index of banks and lending activities, but increase the Lerner Index in deposit markets. Furthermore, we find that the expansion of branches by large-medium sized banks in concentrated markets can reduce the Lerner Index for the deposit market and the amount of loans offered by single-market banks