Unleashing Productivity through Firm Financing

The ability of firms to finance investments in physical and human capital and innovate through digital, green, and other technologies is central to productivity and economic growth. Yet a myriad of distortions and frictions can prevent the efficient allocation of financial resources to firms, negatively impacting their growth and productivity. Drawing from a newly constructed Orbis data set for 2.5 million private firms, Unleashing Productivity through Firm Financing shows that misallocation of finance stifles aggregate productivity. This volume focuses on the links among firm financing, financial constraints, and firm performance, using comprehensive and underexploited firm-level data for emerging market and developing economies. This work explores both the effects of firms’ access to finance and the composition of finance (equity versus debt) on firm performance. It also provides a novel, quantitative assessment of the extent of constraints in debt and equity financing for private firms of different sizes and the impact of such constraints on aggregate growth and productivity. The findings provide robust analytical underpinnings for existing, practical knowledge in supporting access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging market and developing economies.