Workshop IDLab and ECOBAS: The Impact of Credit Supply on the Capital Structure of SMEs in Spain

On October 4, 2024, the IDLab laboratory of HSE Perm, in collaboration with the School of Economics and Business at the University of Vigo (ECOBAS), held a workshop dedicated to studying the impact of credit supply on the capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Spain. The main speaker of the event was Diego Ayres, who presented a report titled "The Impact of Credit Supply on the Capital Structure of SMEs in Spain" — a joint study with Ángel Barajas.

As part of the research, an analysis was conducted on data from 7,172 Spanish SMEs for the period 2014–2022 to assess the impact of credit availability on their debt levels. The study revealed that credit supply positively influences the debt burden of companies, and larger SMEs show less dependence on changes in credit cycles compared to smaller enterprises. These findings confirm key theories of capital structure: the presence of tangible assets contributes to an increase in debt obligations, while profitability and income volatility have an opposite effect.

The event was attended by about 25 participants, including researchers from HSE Perm and the University of Vigo. The workshop served as an important platform for knowledge and experience exchange between scholars from both countries. For IDLab, this event was particularly significant in the context of ongoing research under the grant from the Russian Science Foundation № 23-78-10149, which focuses on factors intensifying SME resources in conditions of external uncertainty. Comparing the results of the study on Spanish SMEs with Russian realities provided valuable insights for further research.

The workshop underscored the importance of international collaboration in economic research and provided participants with new ideas for analyzing capital structure and credit resources in SMEs both in Russia and Spain.