Interesting new research on SME credit access

A new paper by Central Bank economist John McQuinn published on Friday looks at how financing of small and medium enterprises varies across countries and finds that the long shadow of the financial crisis still seems to be having an effect on the ability of some small firms to access bank credit even when their measurable performance would seem to qualify.

Figure 5 on page 20 might be the most interesting for an Irish audience – showing continuing tighter credit here than elsewhere after controlling for a whole range of firm and bank factors.