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Using EIBIS, this paper shows that the dispersion of marginal products across firms in the European Union is about twice as large as that in the United States and estimate potential increases in GDP from the removal of barriers between industries and countries.
It examines the role of firm characteristics and emphasizes that some firm characteristics may reflect compensating differentials rather than constraints and the effect of constraints on the dispersion of marginal products may hence be smaller than has been assumed in the literature.
It also shows that cross-country differences in the dispersion of marginal products are more due to differences in how the business, institutional and policy environment translates firm characteristics into outcomes than to the differences in firm characteristics per se.

European Investment Bank

EIB Working Papers 2018

EIB Working Papers 2018/06 - Resource Misallocation in European Firms: The Role of Constraints, Firm Characteristics and Managerial Decisions

Using the EIB Investment Survey, this working paper categorises EU firms according to their involvement in R&D and other innovation activities. It explores why young innovators are not more engaged in innovation, examining the role of credit constraints and public grants.

EIB Working Papers 2018/07 - Young SMEs: Driving Innovation in Europe?

Using a pan-European data set of 8.5 million firms, this paper finds that firms with high debt overhang invest relatively more than otherwise similar firms if they are operating in sectors facing good global growth opportunities. At the same time, the positive impact of a marginal increase in debt on investment efficiency disappears if firm debt is already excessive, if it is dominated by short maturities, and during systemic banking crises. The results are consistent with theories of the disciplining role of debt, as well as with models highlighting the negative link between agency problems at firms and banks and investment efficiency.