The Impact of Financial Constaints on Firm Survival and Growth

We propose a new approach for identifying and measuring the degree of financial constraint faced by firms and use it to investigate the effect of financial constraints on firm survival and development. Using panel data on French manufacturing firms over the 1996-2004 period, we find that (i) financial constraints significantly increase the probability of exiting the market, (ii) access to external financial resources has a positive effect on the growth of firms in terms of sales, capital stock and employment, (iii) financial constraints are positively related with productivity growth in the short-run. We interpret this last result as the sign that constrained firms need to cut costs in order to generate the resources they cannot raise on financial markets.Financial constraints; Firm growth; Firm survival

Innovation and Competition: The Role of Finance Constraints in a Duopoly Case.

In this paper we analyse the role of financial resources in a process of competition interpreted as a continuous restructuring of productive capacities. Financial constraints appear an essential means of co-ordination. Co-ordination with the environment where this process of restructuring takes place for the process itself to be viable and co-ordination between firms for the survival of competition.Competition;Co-ordination;Finance;Innovation;

Financial Constraints as a Barrier to Export Participation.

The paper analyzes the link between financial constraints and firms' export decisions, using a large micro-level data set on French Manufacturing firms over the 1996-2004 period. Our main finding is that firms enjoying better ex-ante financial heath are more likely to start exporting. This results contrasts with the previous empirical literature which found evidence that participation to exports market improves a firm financial health but not that export starters display specific ex-ante financial advantages. By contrast, our result supports the view that financial constraints act as a barrier to export participation. This finding has important policy implications as it suggests that, in presence of financial markets imperfections, public intervention can be called for to help efficient but financially constrained firms to overcome the sunk entry costs into export markets and expand their activities abroad.Export;Firm heterogeneity;Financial constraint;Sunk costs;

Pistage 3D par mesures angulaires sans manœuvres

International audiencePassive target estimation is a widely investigated problem of practical interest. We are concerned specifically with an autonomous flight system developed onboard the ONERA ReSSAC unmanned helicopter. This helicopter is equipped with a (visible or infrared) camera and so is able to measure azimuths and elevation angles of a target. The latter is supposed to follow a constant velocity motion. It is well known that observer must maneuver in order to insure the observability of the target state. We are interested in tracking partly the target state when both the observer and the target have a constant velocity model in a three-dimensional space. We describe the set of all the trajectories compatible with the angle measurements and we propose a quick method to estimate these trajectories.Le pistage passif d'une cible est un domaine de recherche actif. Nous nous intéressons particulièrement au drone hélicoptère Ressac. Celui-ci est équipé d'une caméra optique et infrarouge. Il est donc capable d'effectuer des mesures angulaires (azimuts et sites) d'une cible. Cette cible est supposée suivre une mouvement rectiligne uniforme dans l'espace. Il est bien connu que l'observateur doit manœuvrer pour pour assurer l'observabilité de l'état de la cible. Dans ce papier, nous estimons partiellement cet état lorsque la cible et l'observateur sont en mouvement rectiligne uniforme dans l'espace 3D. Nous décrivons l'ensemble des trajectoires cible compatibles avec ces mesures angulaires et nous proposons une méthode rapide d'estimations de ces trajectoires

Financial Constraints and Firm Export Behavior

The paper analyzes the link between financial constraints and firm export behavior. Our main finding is that firms enjoying better financial health are more likely to become exporters. The result contrasts with the previous empirical literature which found evidence that export participation improves firm financial health, but not that export starters display any ex-ante financial advantage. On the contrary, we find that financial constraints act as a barrier to export participation. Better access to external financial resources increases the probability to start exporting and also shortens the time before firms decide to serve foreign customers. This finding has important policy implications as it suggests that, in presence of financial markets imperfections, public intervention can be called for to help efficient but financially constrained firms to overcome the sunk entry costs into export markets and expand their activities abroad.Export; Firm heterogeneity; Financial constraints; Sunk costs

Exports and Productivity: Comparable Evidence for 14 Countries

We use comparable micro level panel data for 14 countries and a set of identically specified empirical models to investigate the relationship between exports and productivity. Our overall results are in line with the big picture that is by now familiar from the literature: Exporters are more productive than non-exporters when observed and unobserved heterogeneity are controlled for, and these exporter productivity premia tend to increase with the share of exports in total sales; there is strong evidence in favour of self-selection of more productive firms into export markets, but nearly no evidence in favour of the learning-by-exporting hypothesis. We document that the exporter premia differ considerably across countries in identically specified empirical models. In a meta-analysis of our results we find that countries that are more open and have more effective government report higher productivity premia. However, the level of development per se does not appear to be an explanation for the observed cross-country differences.Exports, productivity, micro data, international comparison

Innovation, productivity gains and the evolution of market structure

The paper analyses the co-ordinating role that markets and organisations are called on to play in determining productivity gains. In fact, the viability of innovation processes cannot be dissociated from the way market structures emerge and evolve. The success (or not) of the introduction of new technologies and the emergence and evolution of given market structures does not depend on the properties of technology, but on the capacity to coordinate the activity of the different firms participating in the restructuring process, which results in a certain degree of stability of the market structure