IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jjieco/v69y2023ics0889158323000278.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Domestic and international effects of economic policy uncertainty on corporate investment and strategic cash holdings: Evidence from Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Fujitani, Ryosuke
  • Hattori, Masazumi
  • Yasuda, Yukihiro

Abstract

We empirically examine the effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) of which measurement methodology Baker, Bloom & Davis (2016) propose on the investment and cash holding behaviors of Japanese firms. We also examine spillover effects of EPU of the United States on them. We find that Japanese firms invest less and accumulate more cash when domestic EPU increases. Impacts of subcategories of domestic EPU differs: the uncertainty of fiscal and exchange rate policies are the key drivers of the negative impacts on corporate investment although the predictive power for investment of economic policy uncertainty of exchange rate holds only in the short run. As for the international spillover, we find that economic policy uncertainty in the United States has negative spillover (contagion) effects on corporate investment in Japan. Our findings suggest that Japanese managers become more cautious in making investment decisions as a response not only to higher domestic EPU but also US EPU.

Suggested Citation

  • Fujitani, Ryosuke & Hattori, Masazumi & Yasuda, Yukihiro, 2023. "Domestic and international effects of economic policy uncertainty on corporate investment and strategic cash holdings: Evidence from Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jjieco:v:69:y:2023:i:c:s0889158323000278
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jjie.2023.101272
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889158323000278
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jjie.2023.101272?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ushijima, Tatsuo, 2020. "More-money and less-cash effects of diversification: Evidence from Japanese firms," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    2. Chunfang Cao & Xiaoyang Li & Guilin Liu, 2019. "Political Uncertainty and Cross-Border Acquisitions," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 23(2), pages 439-470.
    3. Uchino, Taisuke, 2013. "Bank dependence and financial constraints on investment: Evidence from the corporate bond market paralysis in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 74-97.
    4. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    5. Ben S. Bernanke, 1983. "Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Cyclical Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(1), pages 85-106.
    6. Brandon Julio & Youngsuk Yook, 2012. "Political Uncertainty and Corporate Investment Cycles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(1), pages 45-84, February.
    7. Duong, Huu Nhan & Nguyen, Justin Hung & Nguyen, My & Rhee, S. Ghon, 2020. "Navigating through economic policy uncertainty: The role of corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    8. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    9. Naomi Soderstrom & Kevin Jialin Sun, 2007. "IFRS Adoption and Accounting Quality: A Review," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 675-702.
    10. Joan Farre-Mensa & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2016. "Do Measures of Financial Constraints Measure Financial Constraints?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(2), pages 271-308.
    11. Sakai, Hirotsugu, 2020. "Did financing constraints cause investment stagnation in Japan after the 1990s?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    12. Tsuruta, Daisuke, 2019. "Working capital management during the global financial crisis: Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 206-219.
    13. Masuda, Koichi, 2015. "Fixed investment, liquidity constraint, and monetary policy: Evidence from Japanese manufacturing firm panel data," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 11-19.
    14. Wako Watanabe, 2007. "Prudential Regulation and the "Credit Crunch": Evidence from Japan," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(2-3), pages 639-665, March.
    15. Nicholas Bloom, 2009. "The Impact of Uncertainty Shocks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 623-685, May.
    16. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:4:p:1777-1804 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. 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.
    18. Anwer S. Ahmed & Michael Neel & Dechun Wang, 2013. "Does Mandatory Adoption of IFRS Improve Accounting Quality? Preliminary Evidence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1344-1372, December.
    19. Huseyin Gulen & Mihai Ion, 2016. "Editor's Choice Policy Uncertainty and Corporate Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 523-564.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cristian Barra & Pasquale Marcello Falcone, 2024. "Unraveling the impact of economic policy uncertainty on environmental efficiency: How do institutional quality and political orientation matter?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 1450-1490, November.
    2. Waqas Bin Khidmat & Nayar Rafique & Muhammad Umar, 2024. "Economic policy uncertainty and remittances: mediating role of foreign exchange rate," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1-30, August.
    3. Ryosuke Fujitani & Masazumi Hattori & Tomohide Mineyama, 2024. "Passive and Proactive Motivations of Cash Holdings," Working Papers e200, Tokyo Center for Economic Research.

    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. Zhou, Xi & Xiao, Min & Wu, Huiying & You, Jiaxing, 2024. "Does policy uncertainty travel across borders? Evidence from MNC subsidiary investment decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Cui, Di & Ding, Mingfa & Han, Yikai & Suardi, Sandy, 2022. "Foreign shareholders, relative foreign policy uncertainty and corporate cash holdings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Caixe, Daniel Ferreira, 2022. "Corporate governance and investment sensitivity to policy uncertainty in Brazil," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PB).
    4. Xu, Zhaoxia, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty, cost of capital, and corporate innovation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    5. Phan, Hieu V. & Nguyen, Nam H. & Nguyen, Hien T. & Hegde, Shantaram, 2019. "Policy uncertainty and firm cash holdings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 71-82.
    6. D'Mello, Ranjan & Toscano, Francesca, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and short-term financing: The case of trade credit," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Xiao, Shunyi, 2021. "Policy-related risk and corporate financing behavior: Evidence from China’s listed companies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 539-547.
    8. Ahmad, Muhammad Farooq & Aziz, Saqib & El-Khatib, Rwan & Kowalewski, Oskar, 2023. "Firm-level political risk and dividend payout," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. Azevedo, Alcino & Colak, Gonul & El Kalak, Izidin & Tunaru, Radu, 2024. "The timing of voluntary delisting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    10. Liu, Tingli & Chen, Xiao & Yang, Songling, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and enterprise investment decision: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    11. Paudyal, Krishna & Thapa, Chandra & Koirala, Santosh & Aldhawyan, Sulaiman, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty and cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    12. Taylor, Mark P. & Wang, Zigan & Xu, Qi, 2021. "The real effects of exchange rate risk on corporate investment: International evidence," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    13. Wei-Fong Pan, 2019. "Geopolitical Risk and R&D investment," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2019-11, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    14. Chen, Yanyan, 2022. "Does political turnover affect corporate investment? Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    15. Boulton, Thomas J., 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and international IPO underpricing," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    16. Christos Floros & Emilios Galariotis & Konstantinos Gkillas & Efstathios Magerakis & Constantin Zopounidis, 2024. "Time-varying firm cash holding and economic policy uncertainty nexus: a quantile regression approach," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 341(2), pages 859-895, October.
    17. William, Mbanyele & Fengrong, Wang, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and industry innovation: Cross country evidence," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 208-228.
    18. Han, Haozhe & Wang, Xingjian, 2023. "Monetary policy uncertainty and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from China," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Arbatli Saxegaard, Elif C. & Davis, Steven J. & Ito, Arata & Miake, Naoko, 2022. "Policy uncertainty in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Liu, Guanchun & Zhang, Chengsi, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and firms' investment and financing decisions in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic policy uncertainty; Corporate investment; Real option; Cash holding;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies

    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:eee:jjieco:v:69:y:2023:i:c:s0889158323000278. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622903 .

    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.