An important reason for focusing on this measure is because, as noted, the last round of BEEPS took place in late 2008 and early 2009—towards the beginning of the crisis. In contrast to most other measures in those surveys, which focus on what the firm did in the previous fiscal year (i.e., before the crisis), this indicator refers to the current situation. Moreover, managers are likely to take into account the long-term potential effects of the crisis when answering questions about obstacles.<sup>15</sup> Thus, the timing of the final round of the BEEPS is less worrisome for this question than it would be for backward-looking questions.<sup>16</sup> The dependent variable that we use is a dummy variable equal to one if the manager of the firm responded that access to financial services was no obstacle. We focus on the ̳no obstacle‘ category because it was unchanged throughout the surveys. In contrast, and as shown in the Appendix, there were some small changes in the categories other than ̳no obstacle‘.

Even if the changes to the other response categories affect the (unchanged) ̳no obstacle‘ category, this should not be a serious concern for our analysis.<sup>17</sup> The analysis focuses on relative movements for different types of firms rather than on absolute levels. Within a survey round all firms were asked the same question, and thus changes in the questionnaire across rounds are less important for this analysis.

Because the sampling methodology changed slightly across BEEPS rounds, we rely primarily on a balanced panel of firms that participated in all three rounds of the survey. While this allows us to draw conclusions about the same firms over time, it does not necessarily produce a sample that is representative of ECA or the individual countries in the region.

15 For example, Clarke (2011) shows that concern about the long-term viability of the power sector in South Africa led to a rapid and sharp deterioration in views about power during the first weeks of a power crisis. Before the first blackouts, about 10 percent of firms said power was a serious problem. Shortly thereafter, almost 50 percent of firms said it was a serious problem. The decline was so rapid and steep that it seems unlikely to be attributable to only one week of blackouts but rather to predictions of years of future problems.

16 Note that the credit variables used in Brown et al. (2011) were from questions that asked about whether a firm currently had a loan. However, if a firm had a loan at the time of the BEEPS it must have applied for and received it before the survey. On loan applications, the 2008/9 BEEPS questions asked specifically about 2007, before the onset of the crisis. We therefore view the question about financial constraints as being more informative about the early phase of the crisis than the credit variables, which better summarize the financial situation of firms before the crisis. To the extent that our results on the correlates of financial obstacles differ from those in Brown et al. (2011) on the correlates of use of credit, this indicates that the obstacles variable provides different information.

17 Iarossi (2006), for example, discusses how changes in the number of categories might affect responses.

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