The economic impact of the Canada Small Business Financing Program : Impact économique du Programme de financement des petites entreprises du Canada, document de recherche

The objective of this paper is to determine the second benefit to government: the economic impact of the CSBFP. [...] All programs attract certain types of businesses, so, when evaluating the impact of the program, it is difficult to say whether, for example, high-growth businesses were attracted to the program or whether the program increased the growth of the participants. [...] The first paper analyses the impact of the number of Small Business Administration (SBA) loans on growth of regional per capita income, while the second one uses the same method to study the impact of the same variable on the average annual level of employment. [...] The significance of these variables and the changes in the coefficients accounting for CSBFP participation would give a good indication of the extent of the self-selection bias. [...] To make sure that CSBFP participation only captures the impact of the program and not the self-selection into the program, we also use the following control variables.