Small and Medium-sized Enterprises' Credit Rationing on the Tunisian Bank Credit Market

Philippe Adair (1) , Fredj Fhima (2)

1 ERUDITE - Equipe de Recherche sur l’Utilisation des Données Individuelles en lien avec la Théorie Economique
2 Institut des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Sfax

We use a disequilibrium model to estimate credit rationing to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) on the Tunisian bank credit market. Based on a panel dataset of 1,275 SMEs over the period 2001-2006, results show that the demand for bank credit is not determined by " endogenous " factors, i.e. the activity level and internal available resources of SMEs, but rather by " exogenous " factors, i.e. the cost of financing and guarantees required by banks. The latter, especially real guarantees, explain to a large extent the lack of bank lending and results in an average share of 80% — partially or totally — credit rationed SMEs.

Mots clés: Banks; Credit rationing; Econometrics; Disequilibrium model; Tunisia; SMEs; Panel data

Domaines: Finance quantitative [q-fin.CP]

Philippe Adair, Fredj Fhima. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises' Credit Rationing on the Tunisian Bank Credit Market. Journal of Economics and Development Studies, 2014, 2 (1), pp.81-97. ⟨hal-01667356⟩