Low growth, low investment, insufficient spend on infrastructure, weak bank lending to the corporate sector, and funding deficiencies of small and medium-sized enterprises are all causes of concern in Europe. To many, they point to fundamental problems in the financing of European companies and in Europe's financial systems. Are these concerns valid and do the structure and performance of the financial system lie at their heart? If so, what should be done toaddress them, and have the right policy prescriptions been identified to date?A product of the Restarting European Investment Finance research programme, Finance and Investment: The European Case brings together leading researchers to consider the causes of the persistently low level of investment in Europe. It examines the extent to which the financial system is a contributory factor and identifies possible remedies, considering the relation of finance to corporate sector investment, the lending behaviour of banks, the provision of equity financing, and therole of public sector institutions, regulation, and taxation.Finance and Investment provides one of the most comprehensive and thorough analyses of any financial system undertaken to date. It reflects a large body of research using new and existing data sets, employing advanced empirical tools, and exploiting the unique insights provided by the tumultuous events of financial and sovereign debt crises. Together, they comprise an exceptional body of knowledge to advance academic thinking and guide policy formulation.

1 Colin Mayer, Stefano Micossi, Marco Onado, Marco Pagano, and Andrea Polo: Introduction; 2 Immacolata Marino, Brunella Bruno, and Alexandra D'Onofrio: Financial Structure and Corporate Investment in Europe: Evidence from the Crisis Years; 3 Marcin Wolski, Francesca Barbiero, Philipp-Bastian Brutscher, Atanas Kolev, and Alexander Popov: Misallocation of Investment in Europe: The Role of Debt Overhang and Credit Market Distress; 4 Sergio Schmukler and Maria Soledad Martinez Peria: Understanding the Use of Long-term Finance in Developing Countries; 5 Fabrizio Coricelli and Marco Frigerio: Liquidity Squeeze on SMEs during the Great Recession in Europe: The Role of Trade Credit; 6 Brunella Bruno, Immacolata Marino, and Alexandra D'Onofrio: Determinants of Bank Lending in Europe and the US Evidence from Crisis and Post Crisis Years; 7 Tim Eisert,Viral V. Acharya, Christian Eufinger, and Christian Hirsch: Same Story, Different Place? Post-Crisis Recapitalization of Banks in Japan and Europe; 8 Marco Pagano: The Sovereign-Bank Nexus and the Case for European Safe Bonds; 9 Marco Onado, Brunella Bruno, and Giuseppe Lusignani: A Securitisation Scheme for Resolving Europe's Problem Loans; 10 Claire Celerier, Thomas Kick, and Steven Ongena: Changes in the Cost of Bank Equity and the Supply of Bank Credit; 11 Thomas Hellman, Gilles Durufle, and Karen Wilson: From Start-up to Scale-up: Examining Public Policies for the Financing of High-Growth Ventures; 12 Eric Nowak and Alexander Eisele: Market Innovations for (Non-Bank) Financing of SMEs in Light of Crisis and New Regulation- A Policy Perspective; 13 Emanuele Rossi, Paola Bongini, Annalisa Ferrando, and Monica Rossolini: Capital Markets Union and firms' access to external market-based finance: evidence and policy implications from a novel survey-based index; 14 Carmine Di Noia, Marcello Bianchi, and Matteo Gargantini: The EU Securities Law Framework for SMEs: Can Firms and Investors Meet?; 15 Dario Focarelli: Can Insurance Companies Help More SMEs to Access Capital Markets; 16 Xavier Freixas and Marcela Eslava: Public Development Banks: Who to Target and How?; 17 Philipp-Bastian Brutscher and Debora Revoltella: Infrastructure Investment in Europe: New Data, market dynamics, policy actions and the role of the European Investment Bank; 18 Jose Liberti, Vasso Ioannidou, Thomas Mosk, and Jason Sturgess: Intended and Unintended Consequences of Government Credit Guarantee Programs; 19 Andrea Resti, Brunella Bruno, and Giacomo Nocera: Are Risk-Based Capital Requirements Detrimental to Corporate Lending? Evidence from Europe; 20 Alberto Giovannini: Information in the Financial System: The Policy Challenge; 21 Enrique Benito, Albert Banal-Estanol, and Dmitry Khametshin: Asset encumbrance in European Banks: First Evidence; 22 Andrea Polo and Jose Luis Peydro and Enrico Sette: Securities Trading and Lending in Banks