We test in a European context the impact of countries’ lending infrastructure on SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) capital structure. Devised from Berger and Udell (2006), this infrastructure is comprised of the information, legal, judicial, bankruptcy, social, tax and regulatory environments. We find that SME debt is higher in countries with more efficient bankruptcy environments in terms of debt recovery and in countries with less stringent regulatory environments by way of lower capital regulatory requirements for banks. Components of the lending infrastructure are found to differ with debt maturity. Long-term debt is synonymous with efficient bankruptcy environments, whilst the information and legal environments matter more for short-term debt. The regulatory environment is important for both long-term and short-term debt. Our results also lend support for the Pecking-Order, Trade-Off and Agency theories of capital structure.

Countries lending infrastructure and capital structure determination: The case of European SMEs / Mc Namara, Andrea; Murro, Pierluigi; O'Donohoe, Sheila. - In: JOURNAL OF CORPORATE FINANCE. - ISSN 0929-1199. - 43:April(2017), pp. 122-138. [10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2016.12.008]

Countries lending infrastructure and capital structure determination: The case of European SMEs

Pierluigi Murro;
2017

Abstract

We test in a European context the impact of countries’ lending infrastructure on SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) capital structure. Devised from Berger and Udell (2006), this infrastructure is comprised of the information, legal, judicial, bankruptcy, social, tax and regulatory environments. We find that SME debt is higher in countries with more efficient bankruptcy environments in terms of debt recovery and in countries with less stringent regulatory environments by way of lower capital regulatory requirements for banks. Components of the lending infrastructure are found to differ with debt maturity. Long-term debt is synonymous with efficient bankruptcy environments, whilst the information and legal environments matter more for short-term debt. The regulatory environment is important for both long-term and short-term debt. Our results also lend support for the Pecking-Order, Trade-Off and Agency theories of capital structure.
2017
Capital structure; Lending infrastructure; SMEs; Business and International Management; Finance; Economics and Econometrics; Strategy and Management1409 Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management
Countries lending infrastructure and capital structure determination: The case of European SMEs / Mc Namara, Andrea; Murro, Pierluigi; O'Donohoe, Sheila. - In: JOURNAL OF CORPORATE FINANCE. - ISSN 0929-1199. - 43:April(2017), pp. 122-138. [10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2016.12.008]
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
JCF_17.pdf

Solo gestori archivio

Tipologia: Versione dell'editore
Licenza: DRM (Digital rights management) non definiti
Dimensione 484.74 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
484.74 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11385/181556
Citazioni
  • Scopus 61
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 48
  • OpenAlex ND
social impact