Data Analysis and Applications 2

7 Access to Credit for SMEs after the 2008 Financial Crisis: The Northern Italian Perspective

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in their economies as key generators of employment and income and as drivers of innovation and growth. The 2008 economic and financial crisis has had a negative impact on bank lending, and likely on SMEs’ life. Through a sample of 166 Italian firms, we try to gain a better understanding of the access to credit by SMEs and to identify the main difficulties faced by SMEs when trying to raise their credit. We find that in the first phase after the crisis (2008–2012), all Italian SMEs faced the difficulty of accessing finance, while in the second phase (2013–2015), the difficulty of accessing finance changed according to the age, the NACE code and the size of the SME.

7.1. Introduction

SMEs represent 99% of all businesses in the European Union and play a significant role in their economies as key generators of employment and income and as drivers of innovation and growth. This is even more important in the perspective of the economic recovery from the 2008 economic and financial crisis that originated with the bursting of a real estate bubble in the United States. The crisis has had a negative impact on bank lending, and likely on SMEs’ life as well, especially in countries compounded by sovereign debt problems (e.g. Spain and Italy). Indeed, in the case of reduced bank lending SMEs tend to be more vulnerable and affected ...