Micro-economic effects of public funds on enterprises in Hungary

To enhance the effectiveness of and return on public investments, using financial instruments in addition to grants has lately become an increasingly preferred policy instrument choice in Central and Eastern Europe. The paper examines the impact different financial tools bring about at a micro-level. This enables recommendations for policy-makers to be produced on the type of assistance that could be of best use to improve access to finance for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, and thus achieve long-term, sustainable economic growth. The analysis is based on counterfactual evaluation and difference-in-differences. The findings indicate that the use of European Union funds (both grants and financial instruments) has a beneficial influence on employment and sales. However, the results also illustrate that in order to achieve the goal of higher impact and certain productivity effects, subsidies should be allocated to the initially less productive small firms in the less developed regions. Another important outcome is that, to some extent, financing through financial instruments has more direct relevance to advanced productivity, and due to their revolving nature, they generate more positive impact on the Hungarian economy than do grants.