The impact of exporting on financial debt choices of SMEs

Abstract

Using detailed financial and exporting data from Belgian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) between 1998 and 2013, we find that exporters have to finance relatively more working capital than their nonexporting peers and that they resolve this financing need by carrying more short-term financial debt. In addition, while controlling for working capital needs, we find that the positive association between pledgeable short-term assets and short-term debt financing is more pronounced for exporters. In particular, we show that the linkage between pledgeable short-term assets and short-term debt financing is stronger for export-intensive firms and firms that serve distant and risky export destinations.