This work empirically investigates Italian cooperative banks (BCCs) as a driver of new business creation in the Italian provinces over the period 2003–12. The results show that the presence of BCCs positively and significantly affects firms’ entry rates. We also find that the impact of BCCs diffusion on birth rate tends to be stronger for high tech industries during the pre-crisis years, whilst it appears larger for low-tech sectors when considering the post-crisis period. This evidence suggests that BCCs might play a relevant role in financing innovative and risky firms—though, when banks’ risk-aversion increases, BCCs tend, unsurprisingly, to downsize the financing of riskier projects.

中文翻译：

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合作银行对新业务的创造重要吗？意大利制造业的证据

这项工作实证研究了意大利合作银行 (BCC) 作为 2003-12 年期间意大利各省新业务创建的驱动力。结果表明，BCC 的存在对企业的进入率有积极和显着的影响。我们还发现，在危机前几年，BCC 扩散对出生率的影响在高科技行业往往更强，而在考虑到危机后时期，对低技术行业的影响似乎更大。这一证据表明，BCC 可能在为创新和高风险公司融资方面发挥相关作用——不过，当银行的风险厌恶程度增加时，BCC 往往会缩减对风险较高项目的融资规模，这并不奇怪。