Effects of the development bank’s first-tier financing on mexican export companies: the case of the National Bank for Foreign Trade, 2009-2012

Abstract

This study tests whether first-tier financing from the National Bank of Foreign Trade (Banco-mext) improves the performance of exporting firms. To do so, the Propensity Score Matching methodology is applied to a group of 1,056 exporting firms. The overall results show that firms that received first-tier financing performed better in terms of revenue, employment, and exports compared to firms with very similar characteristics but without financing. The most interesting finding is that the loans granted during the 2009 crisis acted countercyclically and in the years following the crisis, firms with and without credit increased their revenue and employment.Key words: export programs, first-tier financing, exporting companies in Mexico, commercial opening model, propensity score matching.