Abstract

This analysis investigates the determinants of the capital structure of the SMEs belonging in the so-called Italian Mezzogiorno, that is perfectly integrated but slowly growing area the South of the country, with respect to the capital structure of the SMEs of the more developed Italian regions. The study is based on a large sample of Italian manufacturing SMEs covering the 2001-2013 years and she is carried through fixed effect panel estimations of several standard leverage models. The empirical findings show that there are structural differences in the working of regional model reaffirming some distinctive features of the financial behaviour of the SMEs belonging in the Southern Italian regions.

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