Information sharing and access to finance of SMEs: cross country evidence from survey data

Using a survey of firms in 61 countries around the world (WBES) and econometric techniques that allow us to deal with observed and unobserved country specific components as well as with partial endogeneity, we explore the role of the development of credit information mechanisms such as private credit bureaus or public credit registries on small and medium-size enterprises' access to bank credit. We find that the development of information sharing mechanisms reduces significantly the financing gap between small and large firms.