Mounting evidence indicates that firms, particularly SMEs, suffered from a significant credit crunch during this crisis …. Little research exists on how SMEs coped with this problem due to a lack of data in the U.S. and elsewhere. We analyse for … the first time whether trade credit provided an alternative source of external finance to SMEs during the crisis. Using …

new Japanese database on small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) that contains information on the strength of the buyer …