Access to finance

This thesis investigates the applications for bank loans by small, medium and large enterprises in Europe and how these applications are related to firm-specific and country-specific factors. For this thesis the data from the Flash Eurobarometer #271 conducted in June 2009 on behalf of the European Commission have been used. Furthermore, country-level data from the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are assembled. By means of binary logit models, this research shows that firm-specific and country-specific factors play important roles in the probability of receiving a bank loan. Specifically, at the firm level the size, age, and profit of a firm have positive influences on the chances of receiving a bank loan. At the country level, it turns out that GDP per capita, inflation and the interest rate have significant relationship with the probability of receiving a bank loan.