This report was prepared by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director. The report summarises the findings of work undertaken for the project “What holds back firms in OECD regions?”, co-funded by the European Commission (EC).
The OECD Secretariat would like to thank Pasquale D’Apice, Laura De Dominicis, Jorge Duran-Laguna and Carlo Gianelle (DG REGIO) and Lewis Dijkstra (DG JRC) for their input and support throughout the project. Participants of five policy workshops that took place in 2022 and early 2023 provided valuable inputs, with presentations by Gergana Bacheva-Ninova (Bulgaria), Tony Gamble (Canada), Erika Piirmets (Estonia), Eerikki Vainio (Finland), Michel Cottet, Frederic Visnovsky (France), Alexander Sebestény (Germany), Diakolios Minas (Greece), Mihály Dán and Éva Németh (Hungary), Sveva Ruggiero and Elena Tiberio (Italy), Guntis Belskis and Krista Freiberga (Latvia), Eimantas Kiudulas (Lithuania), Robbin Bosch and Jos Sanders (Netherlands), Anne Solheim (Norway), Joanna Jakubowska-Łazęcka, Monika Kaczmarek, Witold Uhma and Michal Zeman (Poland), Marco Fernandes and Ana Pires (Portugal), Liviu Stanciu (Romania), Marjana Majeric (Slovenia), Joaquin Gómez, Amaia Jugo and Jon Leaniz (Spain), Alasdair Barrett (United Kingdom) gratefully acknowledged. The report also benefited from analytical inputs by Monique Roso (Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs). Advice and comments at different stages of the project were received from participants of the 2023 and 2024 European Week of Regions and Cities, the annual conferences of the European Regional Science Associations 2022 and 2023, the Italian Regional Science Association (AISRe) 2022 and 2023 and the Regional Studies Association 2023, GeoINNO 2022 and RENT 2022 Conference on Research in Entrepreneurship and Small Business and delegates of the CSMEE, RDPC and its Working Party on Territorial Indicators, as well as from OECD colleagues, in particular Nadim Ahmad and Marc Bournisien de Valmont, Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Andrew Paterson, Laurence Todd and Jenny Vyas.
The project was co-ordinated by Alexander C. Lembcke, Deputy Head of the Economic Analysis, Data and Statistics Division, under the supervision of Rudiger Ahrend, Head of the Economic Analysis, Data and Statistics Division. Alexandra Rusu led the preparation of the report, which was written by Joana Duran‑Franch, Marco Marchese and Alexandra Rusu with contributions from Alexandre Banquet, Claudia Baranzelli, Konstantina Boutsioukou, Benoit Dicharry, Julian Emmler, Jaroslav Groero, Carlo Menon, Thomas (Digby) Ogston, Maria Livia Reis, Matteo Schleicher, Alison Weingarden and Lenka Wildnerova, under the guidance of Alexander C. Lembcke. Maria Camila Jiménez, Marija Kuzmanovic and Marco Marchese developed the framework and conducted the data collection and analysis on subnational access to (SME) finance with guidance from Miriam Koreen, Senior Counsellor on SMEs and Head of the SME and Entrepreneurship Finance Unit, under the supervision of Lucia Cusmano, Head of the SME and Entrepreneurship Division and Celine Kauffmann (former Head of the SME and Entrepreneurship Division).
Thanks are also due to Isabella Edgecombe who formatted the report. Pauline Arbel, Pilar Philip, Jack Waters and Shayne MacLachlan guided the publication process, communication and design.