Credit Relationships in the Great Trade Collapse. Micro Evidence From Europe

Using a rich sample of small and medium-sized European manufacturers, we investigate the nexus between banks’ relationship lending technologies and firms’ export activities during the 2009 great trade collapse. We find that the contraction of firms’ export was milder when banks had access to up-to-date “soft” information on firms’ export prospects. However, we find no evidence of an association between the resilience of firms’ export and banks’ experience on firms’ past activities. The nexus between export resilience and banks’ access to soft information is especially tight for young and small exporters and for firms at an early stage of internationalization.