Ayudas directas de la línea COVID-19: los determinantes de la asignación y el efecto sobre el crédito bancario
Series: Occasional Papers. 2520.
Author: Marina García Gil and Dmitry Khametshin
Full document
Abstract
To mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the productive sector, Spain implemented a series of measures, including most notably a direct support programme aimed at bolstering the solvency of non-financial corporations and individual entrepreneurs. This paper analyses the factors that determined the distribution of this support programme and the various reasons behind its partial take-up, and assesses its effects on bank credit, in order to draw lessons for the design of future direct aid programmes. The findings suggest that regions made use of the programme’s flexibility in defining eligibility criteria for beneficiary firms to broaden its scope. However, this broader coverage may have come at the cost of lower allocative efficiency. Meanwhile, an analysis of the demand for subsidies shows that eligible companies with a lower probability of receiving aid tend to be less digitalised, larger in size, dividend-paying, and less affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Finally, we find that beneficiaries appear to have used a significant portion of the aid to reduce their dependence on bank credit. Specifically, it is estimated that around 33% of the aid may have been used to repay publicly guaranteed bank loans.