IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bap/journl/150401.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Investment: Empirical Evidence for Alternative Propensities

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph P. Ogden

    (State University of New York at Buffalo - SUNY School of Management, Buffalo, NY 14260, U.S.A.)

  • Shanhong Wu

    (University of Arkansas at Fort Smith - UAFS College of Business, Fort Smith, AR 72913, U.S.A.)

Abstract

We investigate whether previous evidence of the weakness of Tobin's q ratio to explain variation in capital expenditure investment stems from ignoring R&D as an alternative investment. Suppose q theory is true in the general sense that a firm¡¯s incentive to invest increases with its relative market value. However, due to variations in industry technology, individual firms vary in their propensities to make physical vs. intellectual property (IP) investment. The conventionally calculated q failed to make distinction of the propensities for the two investments types, q did a poor job in explaining the firm level investment. We develop a modified q model that account for individual firms' ex ante propensities to make these alternative types of investment. Using data on U.S. firms for 1974-2008, we test the model¡¯s power to explain firm¡¯s investment. The evidence shows strong support for modified model. Q ratio accounting for investment propensities explains more than 27.2% (61%) of capital expenditure (R&D) investment variations compared to about 0.9% (10.6%) obtained via conventional regression. Our approach yields strong and robust support for q theory. To our knowledge, our study is the first to propose a modified q measure to account investment propensity in the empirical corporate investment literature. We also document evidence of the influence of financial constraints on investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph P. Ogden & Shanhong Wu, 2015. "Corporate Investment: Empirical Evidence for Alternative Propensities," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 5, pages 1-21, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bap:journl:150401
    Note: Acknowledgments: For their helpful comments, we thank Bruce Petersen, Richard Smith, Tracy Wang, Neng Wang, Lingling Wang, and seminar participants at the University at Buffalo, the University of Kansas, McMaster University, the 2007 and 2010 FMA meetings, the 2010 FMA European meetings, and the 2011 American Economic Association meeting, where earlier drafts of this paper were presented. This paper is based on Wu¡¯s dissertation completed at the University at Buffalo. Ogden acknowledges support from a UB SOM Summer Research grant.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bapress.ca/ref/ref-article/1923-7529-2015-04-01-21.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas, Robert E, Jr & Prescott, Edward C, 1971. "Investment Under Uncertainty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 39(5), pages 659-681, September.
    2. Timothy Erickson & Toni M. Whited, 2000. "Measurement Error and the Relationship between Investment and q," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(5), pages 1027-1057, October.
    3. Murray Z. Frank & Vidhan K. Goyal, 2009. "Capital Structure Decisions: Which Factors Are Reliably Important?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 1-37, March.
    4. Timothy Erickson & Toni M. Whited, 2006. "On the Accuracy of Different Measures of q," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 35(3), pages 5-33, September.
    5. Brown, James R. & Petersen, Bruce C., 2009. "Why has the investment-cash flow sensitivity declined so sharply? Rising R&D and equity market developments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 971-984, May.
    6. Tobin, James, 1969. "A General Equilibrium Approach to Monetary Theory," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 1(1), pages 15-29, February.
    7. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    8. Chirinko, Robert S., 1993. "Multiple capital inputs, Q, and investment spending," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 17(5-6), pages 907-928.
    9. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    10. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    11. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    12. Klock, Mark & Baum, Christopher F. & Thies, Clifford F., 1996. "Tobin's Q, intangible capital, and financial policy," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 387-400, October.
    13. Abel, Andrew B & Blanchard, Olivier J, 1986. "The Present Value of Profits and Cyclical Movements in Investment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(2), pages 249-273, March.
    14. James R. Brown & Steven M. Fazzari & Bruce C. Petersen, 2009. "Financing Innovation and Growth: Cash Flow, External Equity, and the 1990s R&D Boom," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 151-185, February.
    15. Joao F. Gomes, 2001. "Financing Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1263-1285, December.
    16. Schaller, Huntley, 1990. "A Re-examination of the Q Theory of Investment Using U.S. Firm Data," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(4), pages 309-325, Oct.-Dec..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timothy Erickson & Toni M. Whited, 2006. "On the Accuracy of Different Measures of Q," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 35(3), Autumn.
    2. Moshirian, Fariborz & Nanda, Vikram & Vadilyev, Alexander & Zhang, Bohui, 2017. "What drives investment–cash flow sensitivity around the World? An asset tangibility Perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-17.
    3. Zhang, Dongyang & Liu, Deqiang, 2017. "Determinants of the capital structure of Chinese non-listed enterprises: Is TFP efficient?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 179-202.
    4. Peters, Ryan H. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2017. "Intangible capital and the investment-q relation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 251-272.
    5. Wang, Xun, 2022. "Financial liberalization and the investment-cash flow sensitivity," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. Ilker Yilmaz, 2022. "Leverage and Investment Cash Flow Sensitivity: Evidence from Muscat Securities Market in Oman," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, August.
    7. Coad, Alex, 2010. "Neoclassical vs evolutionary theories of financial constraints: Critique and prospectus," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 206-218, August.
    8. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95.
    9. Joel Stiebale & Nicole Wößner, 2020. "M&As, Investment and Financing Constraints," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 49-92, January.
    10. Kwanglim Seo & Jungtae Soh & Amit Sharma, 2018. "Do financial constraints affect the sensitivity of investment to cash flow? New evidence from franchised restaurant firms," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(6), pages 645-661, September.
    11. Lin, Xiaoji & Wang, Chong & Wang, Neng & Yang, Jinqiang, 2018. "Investment, Tobin’s q, and interest rates," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 620-640.
    12. Aydin Ozkan & Roberto J. Santillán‐Salgado & Yilmaz Yildiz & María del Rocío Vega Zavala, 2020. "What Happened To The Willingness Of Companies To Invest After The Financial Crisis? Evidence From Latin American Countries," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 43(2), pages 231-262, May.
    13. Didier, Tatiana & Levine, Ross & Llovet Montanes, Ruth & Schmukler, Sergio L., 2021. "Capital market financing and firm growth," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    14. Caggese, Andrea, 2007. "Testing financing constraints on firm investment using variable capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 683-723, December.
    15. Claessens, Stijn & Yafeh, Yishay & Ueda, Kenichi, 2010. "Financial Frictions, Investment, and Institutions," CEPR Discussion Papers 8170, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Sapienza, Paola & Polk, Christopher, 2003. "The Real Effects of Investor Sentiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 3826, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Ameer, Rashid, 2014. "Financial constraints and corporate investment in Asian countries," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 44-55.
    18. Jean-Bernard Chatelain, 2003. "Structural modelling of financial constraints on investment: where do we stand?," Chapters, in: Paul Butzen & Catherine Fuss (ed.), Firms’ Investment and Finance Decisions, chapter 2, pages 40-58, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2012. "Financial Constraints in Intangible Investments: Evidence from Japanese firms," Discussion papers 12045, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    20. Simmons-Süer, Banu, 2018. "“How relevant is capital structure for aggregate investment? a regime-switching approach”," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 109-117.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate investment; Tobin's q; Capital expenditures; R&D; Propensity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • D92 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice, Investment, Capacity, and Financing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bap:journl:150401. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Carlson (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.bapress.ca .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.