SMEs access to credit: are government measures helpful for constrained firms?

In our market economy, under perfect or ordinary conditions, infrastructures should be funded by public budgets and businesses by private investors. However, public budget constraints, high public debt, liquidity shortage, equity gap, global competition require alternative approaches especially in domains that are strategic for economic growth and development, both in mature and in emerging markets, such as infrastructures and small and medium enterprises. Alternative approaches pass often through public private partnerships (hereafter PPP). Even though PPPs have blurred borders and several practical variations exist across sectors and jurisdictions, they can be defined as agreements where public and private actors share resources (mainly capital and competences) to better accomplish their own missions, with an ultimate shared goal, generally related to certain economic or societal issues. Public Private Partnerships for Infrastructure and Business Funding is ideal for scholars and practitioners who work in the field of public policy design and implementation, finance and banking, and economic development. It offers a brand new approach to PPP, surpassing the overlay between PPPs and infrastructures, and therefore exploring a wider meaning, deepening the financial scope of PPP. The coordination of scholars' and practitioners' views is a strength for the volume, as it allows for a deep and clear understanding of the phenomenon.