Ralph De Haas
@ralphdehaas.bsky.social
EBRD’s Director of Research, CEPR Research Fellow, part-time Professor of Finance at KU Leuven. 🇳🇱🏳️🌈🇪🇺. Views are my own.
Economics
67%
Business
26%
Pinned
New paper alert! 🚨 With Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe, we review what works (and what doesn't) in public policies for private finance across 7 major intervention types.
Published in Annual Review of Financial Economics.
Key findings👇 (1/n)
Published in Annual Review of Financial Economics.
Key findings👇 (1/n)
www.annualreviews.org
Priority gaps: Public lending through private banks as well as subsidized credit remain understudied. And we still don't know enough about how different policies interact with each other. Full paper:
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... (9/9)
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... (9/9)
🔬 Bottom line: We need more rigorous evaluation (especially RCTs and quasi-experimental designs), better measurement of spillovers and long-term effects, and greater use of structural models for counterfactual analysis (8/n)
Publicly backed VC & tax incentives: Most controversial. Government-sponsored GPs often underperform private ones, though recent China evidence suggests they may foster innovation despite lower financial returns (7/n)
🏦 State banks: Can support growth & employment, especially during crises. But highly susceptible to political interference.
🌍 Export credit agencies: Limited but promising evidence. EXIM Bank shutdown in US showed these can matter for exports, especially for financially constrained firms (6/n)
🌍 Export credit agencies: Limited but promising evidence. EXIM Bank shutdown in US showed these can matter for exports, especially for financially constrained firms (6/n)
Strongest evidence: Credit guarantee schemes have been extensively studied with quasi-experimental methods. Generally positive effects on SME credit access, though impact on defaults varies.
Microcredit: lots of RCTs, showing limited impact on profits/income (5/n)
Microcredit: lots of RCTs, showing limited impact on profits/income (5/n)
Beware the downsides. Fiscal costs, distorted incentives, and crowding out private finance are real risks. E.g., credit guarantees during COVID-19 showed both benefits *and* substitution effects(4/n)
Well-designed policies *can* alleviate financial constraints and promote firm growth, especially for SMEs. But effectiveness is highly context-dependent. One-size-fits-all approaches don't work (3/n)
We assess state banks, development banks, public lending through private banks, subsidized credit, credit guarantees, export credit agencies, publicly backed VC, and tax incentives for equity investors.
The evidence? Mixed but increasingly rigorous (2/n)
The evidence? Mixed but increasingly rigorous (2/n)
Victoria Baranov
@vicbar.bsky.social
· Oct 16
EJM - Econ Job Market
econjobmarket.org
🚨 We are hiring! ‼️‼️
tenured track assistant or associate prof in economics at university of Melbourne @unimelb.bsky.social
welcome applications from all fields (but especially from econometrics)
econjobmarket.org/positions?sh...
tenured track assistant or associate prof in economics at university of Melbourne @unimelb.bsky.social
welcome applications from all fields (but especially from econometrics)
econjobmarket.org/positions?sh...