Euro Area SMEs Under Financial Constraints: Belief or Reality?

A meta‐analysis of SMEs literature based on the survey on access to finance of enterprises of the European central bank

“…Empirical evidence suggests that given the high dependence on bank credit, SMEs became specially constrained when banks adjust their loan portfolios as a consequence of negative shocks in their balance sheets. Artola and Genre (2011) study the effect of the last financial crisis over SMEs perception and experienced financial constraints and find that SMEs tend to suffer more when credit standards are tightened. Moreover, considering countries effects, some of them seem to have suffer significantly more than others in terms of access to finance, consistency with those more affected by the financial crisis over their real economies.…”

“…During the period of the financial crisis and its spill over effects over the economies, SMEs seem to suffer extremely by deteriorating external financing conditions (Ferrando et al, 2016; Artola & Genre, 2011; Ferrando & Mulier, 2015; Terceño, Martinez, & Sorrosal‐Forradellas, 2013). Investor confidence diminished dramatically in the banking sector of the economies more affected by the financial crisis, such as Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, given that their banks tended to assign large percentages of their portfolios to the debt securities issued by domestic sovereigns (Ferrando et al, 2017).…”

“…Artola and Genre (2011) study the effect of the last financial crisis over SMEs perception and experienced financial constraints and find that SMEs tend to suffer more when credit standards are tightened. Moreover, considering countries effects, some of them seem to have suffer significantly more than others in terms of access to finance, consistency with those more affected by the financial crisis over their real economies.…”

“…Considering the information collected in this paper we observe that many works focus their analysis on the impact of the crisis on the access to finance. Some of them show the changes in access to financing depending on the severity with which the financial crisis affected countries (Artola & Genre, 2011; Ferrando et al, 2017; Mc Namara et al, 2020; Öztürk & Mrkaic, 2014; Russo & Parlapiano, 2018). Other authors analyse the effects of the crisis depending on the profile of the companies (Casey & O'Toole, 2014; Ferrando & Mulier, 2015).…”

“…Finally, we think that this paper is the starting point of a large research program of an extended network of researchers working around SAFE. This review begins with Artola and Genre (2011) and show an increased peak during the last year, especially during 2019, and be updated with new publications.…”