Cash-in-advance, export decision and financial constraints: Evidence from cross-country firm-level data

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between Cash In Advance (CIA) and firms’ export participation, particularly in the presence of financial constraints. Using the firm-level data covering 56 countries for the period from 2006 to 2010, we detect the positive correlation of the employment of CIA and the export participation of small and medium-sized firms only. This correlation becomes more prominent for severely credit-constrained firms. One possible explanation is that CIA raises the export possibility of small and medium-sized firms by ameliorating credit constraints while it plays no role in large-sized ones.