Trade credit in SMEs: a quantile regression approach

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the determinants of the trade credit in Spanish manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from a new perspective. Specifically, we focus on the relationship between trade credit and other relevance financial resources: bank credit and self-financing. For the first time in the literature, a quantile regression approach is used, which takes into account the heterogeneity of firms in different quantiles of trade credit distribution. Our results show that the relationship between trade credit and other financial sources presents dissimilarities, including differences in sign, on SMEs with different degrees of trade credit. Our findings help to clarify the confusing results achieved in previous research on this topic.

KEYWORDS:

• Trade credit
• bank credit
• SME
• quantile regression

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• G30
• G32

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ The dependent and independent variables are defined according to the previous empirical literature on trade credit.