Heterogeneity and Nonlinearity in the Relationship between Rediscount Credits and Firm Exports

Financial constraints may hamper firm exports since firms may have to bear export-related costs before they obtain export revenues. Hence, export credits are widely used around the world to mitigate the negative effects of financial constraints. This paper focuses on a specific type of subsidized export credit, namely the export rediscount credit scheme implemented by the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT), and investigates whether credit-using firms' exports increase more than they do for firms that do not use this credit in the short run without implying a causal relationship. To achieve this, we combine four datasets: the firm-level monthly data on rediscount credit, firm-level monthly data on exports, firms’ annual balance sheet and income statements, and firm-level annual data on employment. We find that receiving rediscount credit is positively correlated with export growth in the short run. This correlation is robust to using alternative measures of credit use, such as a discrete measure of receiving the rediscount credit and the amount of credit. Second, we discover that the correlation between the use of rediscount credits and export growth is stronger among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Third, we investigate whether the association between rediscount credits and firm exports is non-linear and find that exports increase less proportionately for a higher level of rediscount credits. Finally, we find that both FX- and TL-denominated credits are positively correlated with exports.