ABSTRACT Access to inexpensive short-term credit from banks is vital for many small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which face liquidity problems because of an imbalance between cash outflows and receipt of outstanding payments. This article investigates the key determinants of short-term credit access and pricing for UK SMEs, disentangling between regional effects and firm-specific effects (that is, credit risk ratings). We use a large dataset of 30,183 responses to six waves of the SME Finance Monitor survey. While there are underlying differences at the firm level in risk behavior across regions, our key finding is that, faced with the same risk, banks do react fairly to funding applications in terms of access but not price at the regional level. We conclude that regional differences directly and indirectly affect the way banks allocate and price short-term credit. There is evidence of a peripheral region price penalty.

中文翻译：

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弱势地区的价格：英国中小型企业的短期信贷价格和供应的地区差异

摘要对于许多中小型企业而言，从银行获得廉价的短期信贷至关重要，这些中小型企业由于现金流出与未偿还付款之间的不平衡而面临流动性问题。本文研究了英国中小企业短期信贷获取和定价的关键决定因素，以区分区域效应和企业特定效应（即信用风险评级）。我们使用大型数据集，对SME Finance Monitor调查的六次浪潮做出30,183个响应。虽然跨地区的公司在风险行为方面存在根本差异，但我们的主要发现是，面对相同的风险，银行确实对融资申请做出了公平的反应，但在市场准入方面却没有定价。我们得出的结论是，地区差异直接或间接影响银行分配和定价短期信贷的方式。有证据表明周边地区的价格受到惩罚。