Financial Constraints, Firm and Aggregate Dynamics
France, Sophia-Antipolis - Côte-d’Azur, April 22-24, 2010

While there is a general agreement that today’s financial crisis has lead to a persistent shortage of financial resources and to a general economic slowdown, we still lack a broad and deep understanding of the different microeconomic mechanisms governing the interplay between firms behaviour and financial constraints. Indeed, a good deal of empirical and theoretical studies have shown that financial constraints play an important role in several aspects of firm behaviour, such as firm survival and growth, all the way export and location decisions. On a different albeit related ground, constraints on internal and external financing are likely to be more severe for particular groups of firms. One example is young firms, about which information asymmetries in goods and credit markets can be larger and thereby imply more difficulties in generating cash flows and obtaining external finance. Likewise, for innovative firms, technological uncertainty and lack of collateral make it likely that such firms will rely more on internal sources to finance R&D expenditures. Finally, although credit crunches originating in the financial sector are certainly biting all firms, they are likely to impact first and more acutely on those categories of firms (e.g. small firms) for which monitoring costs are higher.


The workshop will be introduced by a small group of distinguished international scholars and will be aimed at gathering empirical and theoretical contributions on the interplay between financial structures and the growth of firms and their implications for industry and aggregate dynamics. Contributions on the interrelations between firms’ financial structures and the following topics are especially welcomed:
  • Firm entry, growth and survival
  • Technology adoption and innovation
  • Export strategy and location choice
  • Firms behavior and aggregate dynamics
  • Financial Crises and the supply of credit to firms
  • Transmission mechanisms from financial to real markets
 Invited Speakers
  • Christopher Baum (Boston College and DIW Berlin)
  • Domenico Delli Gatti (Catholic University, Milan)
  • Giovanni Dosi (LEM, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa)
  • Gerald P. Dwyer  (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta)
  • Mauro Gallegati (Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona)
  • Alessandra Guariglia (Durham Business School)
  • Mariana Mazzuccato (The Open University, UK)
  • Steven Ongena (Tilburg University)
  • Jean-Paul Pollin  (University of Orléans) 

Local organizing committee

Jean-Luc Gaffard (Chair, OFCE-DRIC, SKEMA and GREDEG), Lionel Nesta (OFCE-DRIC), Mauro Napoletano (OFCE-DRIC), Augusto Hasman (OFCE-DRIC and SKEMA), Flora Bellone (Université of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis), Sarah Guillou (OFCE-DRIC), Patrick Musso (Université de Savoie), Sylvain Barde (OFCE-DRIC).

 

Funding

This conference received the financial support of the EU through the Network of Excellence DIME (Dynamics of Institutions and Markets), of the CNRS and the University of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, through GREDEG (Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion), of OFCE-Sciences Po (Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques de Sciences-Po, Paris) and of SKEMA Business School.