【正文】
r funding provided by insiders the entrepreneur, other members of the startup team, family, and friends. In addition, small businesses generally receive their external funding in private “ equity and debt markets, rather than public markets. Part of the capital structure decision for small firms is whether and when to enter public capital markets via an IPO, although the vast majority of firms never reach this point in the financial growth cycle. Even the distinction between insider finance and external finance in small business is not always pletely clear, since insiders often give personal guarantees or pledge personal collateral against external debt provided by financial institutions. The intermediaries in private markets also evaluate the personal finances of the inside owners including assets that are not invested in the firm so these personal assets also have a bearing on the capital structure of the firm. Finally, the vast majority of small businesses are ownermanaged, which alleviates agency conflicts between owners and managers that affect capital structure choices in large corporations. However, owner management may introduce other factors into capital structure decisions of small firms, such as the owner/manager’s level of risk aversion, or his/her incentive to issue external debt rather than external equity in order to keep ownership and control of the firm. While much research has begun on the topic of small business finance, even more remains to be done. Our analysis of the financial growth cycle and the interconnectedness of small firm finance suggests that some of the most exciting areas for future research may involve investigating how sources of small firm finance may change over the business cycle, in reaction to changes in government policy, during times of distress in private or public markets, and as information processing technology continues to improve. Moreover, it is important to determine the effects of the availability and cost of small business finance on the formation of new firms, their ability to engage in risky or opaque activities, and their effects on employment, real output, and economic growth. The availability of new data resources described and employed here should prove very useful in pursuing these and other research agendas on small business finance. 引自: Berger A N, Udell G F. The Economics of Small Business Fina