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Government as Customer of Last Resort: The Stabilizing Effects of Government Purchases on Firms

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  • Jim Goldman
  • Philip Strahan

Abstract

I document a beneficial effect of the government’s participation in product markets. Exploiting the 2008–2009 financial crisis as a natural experiment, I show that federal procurement contracts insulated government contractors’ performance from the crisis. By 2009, government contractors had 15% higher market capitalization, had 18% higher capital expenditures, and received 26% more bank credit than did similar firms. This stabilizing effect, in turn, spilled over into neighboring firms. An average amount of government purchases reduced local employment losses by 35% in retail industries and by 48% in industries supplying government contractors. Spillovers were particularly strong in high economic slack areas.Author has furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.

Suggested Citation

  • Jim Goldman & Philip Strahan, 2020. "Government as Customer of Last Resort: The Stabilizing Effects of Government Purchases on Firms," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(2), pages 610-643.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:33:y:2020:i:2:p:610-643.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhz059
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Haikun Zhu, 2018. "Social Stability and Resource Allocation within Business Groups," Working Papers Series 79, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    2. Miyazaki, Tomomi & Hiraga, Kazuki & Kozuka, Masafumi, 2024. "Stock market response to public investment under the zero lower bound: Cross-industry evidence from Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Neukirchen, Daniel & Engelhardt, Nils & Krause, Miguel & Posch, Peter N., 2022. "Firm efficiency and stock returns during the COVID-19 crisis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    4. Huang, Jun & Han, Feifei & Li, Yun, 2023. "Government as major customer: The effects of government procurement on corporate environmental, social, and governance performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    5. Chen Chen & Ting‐Chiao Huang & Mukesh Garg & Mehdi Khedmati, 2021. "Governments as customers: Exploring the effects of government customers on supplier firms’ information quality," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(9-10), pages 1630-1667, October.
    6. Gabriel, Ricardo Duque, 2024. "The Credit Channel of Public Procurement," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(S).
    7. Bharat Raj Parajuli & Jeffrey Pontiff, 2023. "Asset Pricing Implications of Firms’ Government Sales Dependency," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(1), pages 146-180.
    8. Jean‐Noël Barrot & Ramana Nanda, 2020. "The Employment Effects of Faster Payment: Evidence from the Federal Quickpay Reform," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(6), pages 3139-3173, December.
    9. Jean-Noel Barrot & Ramana Nanda, 2016. "Can Paying Firms Quicker Affect Aggregate Employment?," NBER Working Papers 22420, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Wang, Xun & Yu, Jingwen, 2023. "COVID-19 pandemic and corporate liquidity: The role of SOEs’ trade credit response," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    11. Mario Daniele Amore, 2020. "Innovation disclosure in times of uncertainty," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 792-815, October.
    12. Proebsting, Christian, 2022. "Market segmentation and spending multipliers," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 1-19.
    13. Huang, Wan & Bai, Yufan & Luo, Hong, 2024. "Customer identity concealing and insider selling profitability: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    14. Wang, Jiaxin & Chen, Jin & Huang, Xiang & Song, Zilong, 2023. "Principal SOE customers and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from the government arrears clearance reform," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    15. Zhu, Haikun, 2018. "Essays on political economy of finance and fintech," Other publications TiSEM 93f94423-e671-4041-bb24-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Wei, Xiahai & Wei, Qingfang & Yang, Lisha, 2023. "Induced green innovation of suppliers: The “green power” from major customers," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).

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