Research Areas

The recent international financial crisis has sparked renewed interest in the impact conditions of access to financing have on investment, employment and productivity. This study for the BBVA Foundation analyzes the way lending behavior at different stages of the cycle affects the level and composition of investment in the medium-term productivity of companies, economic sectors and economies. These questions are especially relevant given Spain’s poor track record for productivity, which conditions its growth potential. The Spanish case also provides a good testing ground for analysis because of its high number of SMEs, which are heavily dependent on bank financing, and because of the magnitude of the banking crisis and the subsequent tightening of the conditions of access to financing. Some of the specific questions analyzed in this research project are:

• the impact on productivity of the intense accumulation of investment financed by the credit boom, the criteria underlying the banking decisions that led to the boom, and the anticipated duration of its effects
• the significance of levels of company and sector dependence on banks for financing in explaining the evolution of their productivity
• the determinants of productivity at sector and aggregate level, taking the role of financial variables intoaccount
• and a microanalysis of two variables ––investment and productivity–– at sector and aggregate level