Public financing and entrepreneurship: behaviour and regional heterogeneity of SMEs
The existence of restrictions for small- and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs) to access long-term credit has led governments to establish institutional
systems to facilitate such access and reduce the cost of credit, with the condition
that its feasibility is justified (and assessed) and there are no distortions as regards
competition. Very few empirical in-depth studies exist regarding this field of academic
research, and scarce attention has been paid from a regional perspective.
Due to the characteristics of the business structures in the different regions, as well
as the existence of agglomeration economies and the regional dispersion of the entrepreneurship rate, this paper analyses the effects of the productive financing support
model, provided by the Government of Spain, through the Instituto de Crédito
Oficial (ICO) [Official Credit Institute], on the behaviours and performances of the
beneficiary companies. In the last decade, this source of financing has assigned
30,000 million euro. The results show the general acceptance of this policy due to
its adaptation to the interests of the companies and its contribution to the improvement
of the economic-financial efficiency indicators. Regionally, no substantial
differences have been observed, but the results of this research show a greater contribution to the dynamism of the more progressive regions.
Check other articles from the issue Monográfico 2009 'Innovación, emprendimiento y territorio' or from other issues.