Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/170615 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 18
Publisher: 
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza (DISCE), Milano
Abstract: 
This paper assesses the role of relationship lending in explaining simultaneously the innovation activity of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), their probability to export (i.e. the extensive margin) and their share of exports on total sales conditional on exporting (i.e. the intensive margin). We adopt a measure of informational tightness based on the ratio of firm's debt with its main bank to firm's total assets. Our results show that the strength of the bank-firm relation has a positive impact on both SME's probability to export and their export margins. This positive effect is only marginally mediated by the SME's increased propensity to introduce product innovation. We further discuss the financial and non-financial channels through which the intensity of bank-firm relationship supports SMEs' international activities.
Subjects: 
margins of export
bank-firm relationships
innovation
localized knowledge spillovers
JEL: 
F10
G20
G21
O30
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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