Firms’ investment decisions – explaining the role of uncertainty

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, based on the value optimization problem of the firm, the authors proposed a theoretical model for firms’ investment decisions, which incorporates the effects of both idiosyncratic (firm specific) and macroeconomic uncertainty/risk. Second, the authors empirically estimate the proposed model for Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach - The authors utilize an unbalanced firm-level panel data covering the period 1988-2013. To generate time-variant firm-specific uncertainty, the authors estimate the autoregressive model on firm sales for each firm included in the sample over the examined period. Firm-specific risk is also measured based on the square of the residuals of firms’ sales. Two measures of macroeconomic uncertainty are computed using the conditional variance obtained by estimating the ARCH model for consumer price index and industrial production index. Several alternative measures of both types of uncertainties are used to ensure the robustness of uncertainty effects. To mitigate the problem of endogeneity, the robust two-step system-generalized method of moments estimator is used to estimate the empirical model. Findings - The results indicate that firms are likely to cut down their level of investment spending when either type of uncertainty increases. The results also reveal that the sensitivity of firms’ investment decisions to macroeconomic (aggregate) uncertainty is higher as compared to the firm-specific uncertainty. The authors show that these findings are robust to different uncertainty measures used in the analysis. The results related to firm characteristics suggest that the firm-specific variables namely the debt to assets ratio, the costs of debt to assets ratio, and the sales to assets ratio are also equally important in the determination of investment decisions of corporate manufacturing firms. Practical implications - The empirical findings of the paper are useful for firm managers, investors, and government authority. Specifically, the results help firm managers and investors to understand how firm-specific and macroeconomic uncertainty affects firms’ investment decisions. The finding that firms cut their investment spending in times of macroeconomic instability implies that declines in firms’ investment spending during the periods of macroeconomic turmoil may delay the process of recovery. Therefore, the policy makers should design such policies that encourage firms to invest more in economic crisis periods, which, in turn, would enhance the growth of the economy and help to overcome the problem of downturn/recession. Originality/value - The authors first propose a theoretical model for firms’ investment decisions based on the value optimization problem of the firm by incorporating the role of both firm-specific and macroeconomic uncertainty. Next, unlike most of previous studies, they estimate the proposed model for non-financial firms operating in Pakistan. The authors predict that a higher exposure to both idiosyncratic and macroeconomic uncertainties leads to lower investment in Pakistani manufacturing firms. Further, the authors hypothesize that both types of uncertainties have differential effects on firms’ investment decisions.