Call for papers
France, Sophia Antipolis-Côte-d’Azur, 22-24 April , 2010
Deadline for submission of paper first draft:  31 January, 2010

While there is a general agreement that today’s financial crisis has lead to a persistent shortage of financial resources and to a general economic slowdown, we still lack a broad and deep understanding of the different microeconomic mechanisms governing the interplay between firms behavior and financial constraints. Indeed, a good deal of empirical and theoretical studies have shown that financial constraints play an important role in several aspects of firm behavior, such as firm survival and growth, all the way export and location decisions. On a different albeit related ground, constraints on internal and external financing are likely to be more severe for particular groups of firms. One example is young firms, about which information asymmetries in goods and credit markets can be larger and thereby imply more difficulties in generating cash flows and obtaining external finance.  Likewise, for innovative firms, technological uncertainty and lack of collateral make it likely that such firms will rely more on internal sources to finance R&D expenditures. Finally, although credit crunches originating in the financial sector are certainly biting all firms, they are likely to impact first and more acutely on those categories of firms (e.g. small firms) for which monitoring costs are higher.

The workshop will host a small group of distinguished international scholars and it will be aimed at gathering empirical and theoretical contributions on issues related to the interplay between financial structures and the dynamics of firms and their implications for industry and aggregate dynamics. Contributions on the interrelations between firms’ financial structures and the following topics are especially welcomed:

• Firm entry, growth and survival
• Technology adoption and innovation
• Export strategy and location choice
• Firms behavior and aggregate dynamics
• Financial Crises and the supply of credit to firms   

Paper Submission

Scholars who wish to present their research at the workshop are invited to send a full (though potentially incomplete or preliminary) paper (in PDF) to one of the following email addresses: mauro.napoletano@ofce.sciences-po.fr,  augusto.hasman@ofce.sciences-po.fr , no later than 31 January, 2010. An email confirming the reception will be sent. Only novel and previously unpublished research is eligible for presentation. The decision of paper acceptance will be given before 15 February, 2010.

Conference Website

http://www.gredeg.cnrs.fr/Colloques/DIME-TEMAFIC-2010/Index.html

Local organizing committee

Jean-Luc Gaffard (Chair, OFCE-DRIC and GREDEG), Lionel Nesta (OFCE-DRIC), Mauro Napoletano (OFCE-DRIC), Augusto Hasman (OFCE-DRIC and CERAM), Flora Bellone (Université of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis), Sarah Guillou (OFCE-DRIC), Patrick Musso (Université de Savoie), Sylvain Barde (OFCE-DRIC).

Important Deadlines

• Deadline for submission of paper first draft:  31 January, 2010

• Decision of paper acceptance: 15 February, 2010

• Submission of final paper:  7 April, 2010

Funding

This conference received the financial support of the EU through the Network of Excellence DIME (Dynamics of Institutions and Markets), of the CNRS and the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, through GREDEG (Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion), and of OFCE-Sciences Po (Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques de Sciences-Po, Paris)