SME Finance

My interest in SME finance goes back to my days at the World Bank and I have been actively involved in the research and policy debate since then; moving beyond providing evidence for the firm size gap in access to finance to identifying specific lending techniques and business models to improve SMEs’ access to finance.  Among other initiatives, I also was a juror in the G20 SME Finance Challenge.  I was also a leading researcher in a DFID-financed project on Innovation and Growth in ten low-income countries, focusing on SME Finance and  was leading an impact study of the European Fund for Southeast Europe for Armenia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Information sharing, access to finance, loan contract design and the labor market (joint with Patrick Behr and Raquel de Freitas Oliveira)

Foreigners vs. Natives: Bank Lending Technologies and Loan Pricing, with Vasso Ioannidou and Larissa Schäfer, Management Science 64, 3792-3820, 2018.

Keep Walking? Geographical Proximity, Religion and Relationship Banking, with Steven Ongena and Ilkay Sendeniz-Yuncu, Journal of Corporate Finance, 2019, 55, 49-68

When Arm’s Length Is Too Far. Relationship Banking over the Credit Cycle, with Hans Degryse, Ralph De Haas and Neeltje van Horen, Journal of Financial Economics 127,   176-194, 2018

SME Finance in Africa, with Robert Cull, Journal of African Economies 23, 583-613, 2014.

Bank Financing for SMEs - Lessons from the Literature, National Institute Economic Review 225, R23-R38, 2013.

Bank Financing for SMEs: Evidence Across Countries and Bank Ownership Types, with A.Demirgüç-Kunt and Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, Journal of Financial Services Research 39, 35-54, 2011.

SME Finance: What have We Learned and What Do We still Need to Learn? Chapter in World Economic Forum Financial Development Report 2010.

Finance, Firm Size, and Growth, with A. Demirgüç-Kunt , L. Laeven and R. Levine, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 40(7), 2008, pp. 1379-1405. Data (Stata)
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Financing Patterns around the World: Are Small Firms Different? , with A. Demirgüç-Kunt and V. Maksimovic, Journal of Financial Economics 89(3), 2008, pp. 467-487.

Small and Medium Enterprises across the Globe, with A. Demirgüç-Kunt and M. Ayyagari, Small Business Economics 29, December 2007, pp. 415-34.
Data

The Influence of Financial and Legal Institutions on Firm Size, with A. Demirgüç-Kunt and V. Maksimovic, Journal of Banking and Finance 30, November 2006, pp. 2995-3015.

Small and Medium-Size Enterprises: Access to Finance as a Growth Constraint, with A. Demirgüç-Kunt, Journal of Banking and Finance 30, November 2006, 2931-2943.

The Determinants of Financing Obstacles, with A. Demirgüç-Kunt , L. Laeven and V. Maksimovic, Journal of International Money and Finance 25, October 2006, pp. 932-52.

SMEs, Growth and Poverty, Cross Country Evidence, with A. Demirgüç-Kunt and R. Levine, Journal of Economic Growth 10, September 2005, pp. 197-227.

Financial and Legal Constraints to Firm Growth: Does Size Matter?,  with A. Demirgüç-Kunt, and V. Maksimovic, Journal of Finance 60, February 2004, pp. 137-177.