Garantías de crédito y eficiencia en la Pyme española, 1996-2003

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse one of the most traditional SME-support measures for the period between 1996 and 2003: The allocation of guarantees by the Spanish guarantee system. For this analysis, we take into consideration three groups of companies which constitute the casuistry of long-term financial supports to companies (guarantees, guarantees and preferential funding, or just preferential funding), as well as another two control groups without public support, due to the fact that these do not receive long-term external financing or have no access to those supports. In the aggregate, 23,328 companies are studied. This analysis enables the establishment of explanatory models of different performances according to the groups, sizes and sectors, and depending on the access to long-term external financing. The results offer new and attractive ideas to business and political circles. We can therefore conclude that benefiting from public support is relevant at economic, financial and business efficiency levels. The advantages can be observed mainly in the weakest companies of the business framework, where the capacity to tackle projects is facilitated, although they do not manage to reduce their financial costs until they reach relative levels similar to those reached by companies not accessing the guarantee system.