COOPERATION BETWEEN SMALL ENTERPRISES, MUTUAL GUARANTEE AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: REFLECTIONS ON CREDIT GUARANTEE SYSTEMS

Abstract

Micro, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) are essential to ensure productive occupation and well- distributed income. Regional clusters, local productive arrangements (LPAs) or local production systems, especially in Europe, are phenomena of agglomeration of MSMEs that aim to promote joint actions for the attainment of collective efficiencies by using integration mechanisms, such as the collective – or mutual – credit guarantee tools. This facilitates the access of MSMEs to credit. As a first step, this paper proposes to gather the main trends regarding different forms of cooperation and joint actions between small and medium enterprises, whose purpose is to achieve the so-called collective efficiencies. Most particularly, it analyzes a specific form of joint action: the collective or mutual credit guarantee, while discussing some of the main international cases. Then, it evaluates the possibilities of applying this credit tool in Brazil.