Marieli Vieira

The objective of this research was to analyze how credit restrictions affect the decision to export from companies in eighteen Latin American countries (LA). It was found that there was a significant increase in exports of LA in recent years, around 22% a year between 2000 and 2010, according to UNCTAD data, as well as the importance of export activity for the growth and development of the countries. And as participation in the international market can be influenced by the need for credit, the restrictions may affect business decisions. The investigation was done through the estimation of a non-linear probability model, the Probit model. The use of this econometric technique allowed to identify which factors are statistically significant and that may explain the export activity of companies, estimating the probability of a company export. Are considered not only access to credit, but also other business characteristics, such as age, size, participation of foreign capital in the company structure, use of imported inputs, use of media (such as e-mail and websites), agglomeration of a certain sector companies in a city, and the use of labor-skilled in production. For the empirical analysis data were used of 7,764 industrial firms distributed in eighteen Latin American countries. The results indicate that access to credit was positively associated with the decision of firms to participate in the international market, which suggests the influence of financial constraints on the probability of export business. Regarding the other variables, it was found that larger firms and with foreign participation in the capital structure of firms are more likely to become exporters. It is suggested to formulate policies that expand access to the financial markets as one of the way to promote the participation of companies in the international market.