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Firm shutdown during the financial and the sovereign debt crises: Empirical evidence from Portugal

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Bibliographic Details
Summary:This paper examines Portuguese firms’ survival over the business cycle and investigates whether the effect of firm size varies across the phases of the cycle and with the type of shock associated with periods of economic contraction. Our results show that smaller firms are more likely to shut down than larger firms. Within each size band, however, we found that during the two crises examined, micro firms experienced hazards of closing (relative to large firms) at least similar to those observed in the pre-crisis period, while medium-sized firms were found to have been more vulnerable during the financial crisis period but showed more resilience during the sovereign debt crisis. The results suggest that during the sovereign debt crisis, firms faced a higher probability of closing than they did during the financial crisis.
Main Authors:Ferreira, Priscila
Other Authors:Saridakis, George
Subject:Firm Survival SMEs Financial Crisis Sovereign Debt Crisis Portugal Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão
Year:2017
Country:Portugal
Document type:article
Access type:open access
Associated institution:Universidade do Minho
Language:English
Origin:RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Description
Summary:This paper examines Portuguese firms’ survival over the business cycle and investigates whether the effect of firm size varies across the phases of the cycle and with the type of shock associated with periods of economic contraction. Our results show that smaller firms are more likely to shut down than larger firms. Within each size band, however, we found that during the two crises examined, micro firms experienced hazards of closing (relative to large firms) at least similar to those observed in the pre-crisis period, while medium-sized firms were found to have been more vulnerable during the financial crisis period but showed more resilience during the sovereign debt crisis. The results suggest that during the sovereign debt crisis, firms faced a higher probability of closing than they did during the financial crisis.