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Creditworthiness evaluation of Italian SMEs at the beginning of the 2007–2008 crisis: An MCDA approach

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  • Corazza, Marco
  • Funari, Stefania
  • Gusso, Riccardo

Abstract

In this paper we use a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach in order to evaluate the creditworthiness of about 40,000 Italian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) viewed as potential applicants for bank loans in the three-year period 2006–2008, a timespan embracing the beginning phase of the recent economic and financial crisis. This approach is able to consider simultaneously different factors affecting the firms’ solvency level. The results obtained in terms of classification into homogeneous rating classes, scoring and migration probabilities show that the proposed approach is able to unveil early signal of recession in the Italian SMEs sector. Furthermore, some comparisons between our approach and a couple of known methodologies for creditworthiness assessment show the goodness of our method.

Suggested Citation

  • Corazza, Marco & Funari, Stefania & Gusso, Riccardo, 2016. "Creditworthiness evaluation of Italian SMEs at the beginning of the 2007–2008 crisis: An MCDA approach," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:38:y:2016:i:c:p:1-26
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2016.05.008
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    Cited by:

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    2. Marco Corazza & Giovanni Fasano & Stefania Funari & Riccardo Gusso, 2021. "MURAME parameter setting for creditworthiness evaluation: data-driven optimization," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 44(1), pages 295-339, June.
    3. Maria A. S. Xavier & Fernando A. F. Ferreira & José P. Esperança, 2021. "An intuition-based evaluation framework for social credit applications," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 296(1), pages 571-590, January.
    4. Francesco Ciampi & Alessandro Giannozzi & Giacomo Marzi & Edward I. Altman, 2021. "Rethinking SME default prediction: a systematic literature review and future perspectives," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2141-2188, March.
    5. Marco Corazza & Giovanni Fasano & Stefania Funari & Riccardo Gusso, 2017. "PSO-based tuning of MURAME parameters for creditworthiness evaluation of Italian SMEs," Working Papers 04, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    6. Eggers, Fabian, 2020. "Masters of disasters? Challenges and opportunities for SMEs in times of crisis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 199-208.

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