However, bank debt is not the optimal source for financing innovation; equity is better suited to this end. This is well known and supported by extensive research (see, inter alia, Brown Fazzari and Petersen, 2009, Rajan, 2012, and Magri, 2014). Equity does not require the collateral needed for debt financing, which innovative firms may lack due to the larger incidence of intangible assets.
2  BIS Review 70/2004  I appreciate the fact that, last year, Germany directed its attention to structural reforms in the spirit of the Lisbon agenda - even if this was driven more by the “push” of persistent economic stagnation than by the “pull” of the Lisbon vision.