Global Crisis and Financial Distress Likelihood of SMEs

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, this chapter sheds light on the determinants of the financial distress costs between Italian and German small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The authors propose an innovative formulation of the expected costs originated by financial distress expressed as the product of the expected financial distress likelihood times the total amount of the financial distress costs if insolvency does occur. The model is estimated using panel data methodology on samples from two European countries (Italy and Germany). The results indicate that the amount of ex-post costs depends on derivative financial instruments, intangible assets, and relation with local banks (small local banks rather than large banking groups).