IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bde/wpaper/0214.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial constraints and investment in France and Spain: a comparison using firm level data

Author

Listed:
  • Ignacio Hernando

    (Banco de España)

  • André Tiomo

    (Banque de France)

Abstract

This paper analyses corporate investment decisions in France and Spain, focusing on the role of financial constraints in explaining investment behaviour. For this purpose, we take advantage of very carefully harmonised data sets that allow for the use of variables homogeneously defined in both countries. The information used consists of two panel data sets of industry firms selected from those reporting information to the Central Balance Sheet Offices of the Banque de France and of the Banco de España over the period 1991-1999. So as to test for the existence of liquidity constraints, we conduct a test of excess sensitivity of investment to cash flow using a standard Euler equation model. More precisely, both the theoretical model and the testing strategy used in this paper closely follow Bond and Meghir (1994). These authors present an empirical model of investment based on the Euler equation of an extended version of the standard neoclassical model of investment. This model assumes that the firm faces a hierarchy of costs for the alternative sources of finance and leads to different characterisations of investment behaviour for firms pursuing different financial policies. Overall, our results suggest that there are significant differences in investment behaviour which are closely linked to the financial situation of firms. In particular, the evidence found is consistent with the investment expenditure of firms paying zero dividends being constrained by the availability of internally generated funds.

Suggested Citation

  • Ignacio Hernando & André Tiomo, 2002. "Financial constraints and investment in France and Spain: a comparison using firm level data," Working Papers 0214, Banco de España.
  • Handle: RePEc:bde:wpaper:0214
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/PublicacionesSeriadas/DocumentosTrabajo/02/Fic/dt0214e.pdf
    File Function: First version, July 2002
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chirinko, Robert S, 1993. "Business Fixed Investment Spending: Modeling Strategies, Empirical Results, and Policy Implications," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 1875-1911, December.
    2. Gilchrist, Simon & Himmelberg, Charles P., 1995. "Evidence on the role of cash flow for investment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 541-572, December.
    3. Steven M. Fazzari & Bruce C. Petersen, 1993. "Working Capital and Fixed Investment: New Evidence on Financing Constraints," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(3), pages 328-342, Autumn.
    4. Robert S. Chirinko, 1992. "Business Fixed Investment Spending: A Critical survey of Modeling Strategies, Empirical Results, and Policy Implications," Working Papers 9213, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago.
    5. Jean-Bernard Chatelain & Andrea Generale & Ignacio Hernando & Ulf von Kalckreuth & Philip Vermeulen, 2001. "Firm Investment and Monetary Policy Transmission in the Euro Area," Working Papers 0119, Banco de España.
    6. Calomiris, Charles W & Hubbard, R Glenn, 1990. "Firm Heterogeneity, Internal Finance, and 'Credit Rationing.'," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(399), pages 90-104, March.
    7. Jacques Mairesse & Bronwyn H. Hall & Benoît Mulkay, 1999. "Firm-Level Investment in France and the United States: An Exploration of What We Have Learned in Twenty Years," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 55-56, pages 27-67.
    8. Lünnemann, Patrick & Mathä, Thomas Y., 2001. "Monetary transmission: empirical evidence from Luxembourg firm level data," Working Paper Series 111, European Central Bank.
    9. Schiantarelli, Fabio, 1996. "Financial Constraints and Investment: Methodological Issues and International Evidence," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(2), pages 70-89, Summer.
    10. Ángel Estrada & Javier Vallés, 1995. "Investment and Financial Costs: Spanish Evidence with Panel Data," Working Papers 9506, Banco de España.
    11. Bernanke, Ben S. & Gertler, Mark & Gilchrist, Simon, 1999. "The financial accelerator in a quantitative business cycle framework," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 21, pages 1341-1393, Elsevier.
    12. Stephen Bond & Costas Meghir, 1994. "Dynamic Investment Models and the Firm's Financial Policy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(2), pages 197-222.
    13. Stephen Bond & Dietmar Harhoff & John Van Reenen, 2010. "Investment, R&D and Financial Constraints in Britain and Germany," NBER Chapters, in: Contributions in Memory of Zvi Griliches, pages 433-460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Inessa Love, 2003. "Financial Development and Financing Constraints: International Evidence from the Structural Investment Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 765-791, July.
    15. Von Kalckreuth, Ulf, 2001. "Monetary transmission in Germany: new perspectives on financial constraints and investment spending," Working Paper Series 109, European Central Bank.
    16. repec:adr:anecst:y:1999:i:55-56:p:02 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Stephen Bond & Julie Elston & Jacques Mairesse & Benoit Mulkay, 1997. "Financial factors and investment in Belgium, France, German and the UK: A comparison using company panel data," IFS Working Papers W97/08, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    18. Bernanke, Ben & Gertler, Mark, 1989. "Agency Costs, Net Worth, and Business Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 14-31, March.
    19. Bond, Stephen & Van Reenen, John, 2007. "Microeconometric Models of Investment and Employment," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 6, chapter 65, Elsevier.
    20. Paxil Butzen & Catherine Fuss & Philip Vermeulen, 2002. "The interest rate and crédit channels in Belgium: an investigation with micro-level firm data," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 45(3), pages 5-36.
    21. César Alonso-Borrego, 1994. "Estimating Dynamic Investment Models with Financial Constraints," Working Papers wp1994_9418, CEMFI.
    22. 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.
    23. Eugenio Gaiotti & Andrea Generale, 2002. "Does Monetary Policy Have Asymmetric Effects? A Look at the Investment Decisions of Italian Firms," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 61(1), pages 29-59, June.
    24. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1998. "Capital-Market Imperfections and Investment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 193-225, March.
    25. Huntley Schaller, 1993. "Asymmetric Information, Liquidity Constraints and Canadian Investment," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 26(3), pages 552-574, August.
    26. Chatelain, Jean-Bernard & Tiomo, André, 2001. "Investment, the cost of capital, and monetary policy in the nineties in France: a panel data investigation," Working Paper Series 106, European Central Bank.
    27. Michael Devereux & Fabio Schiantarelli, 1990. "Investment, Financial Factors, and Cash Flow: Evidence from U.K. Panel Data," NBER Chapters, in: Asymmetric Information, Corporate Finance, and Investment, pages 279-306, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    29. J. B. Chatelain & Andrea Generale & I. Hernando & U. von Kalckreuth & P. Vermeulen, 2001. "Firm investment and monetary transmission in the euro area," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 431, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    30. Takeo Hoshi & Anil Kashyap & David Scharfstein, 1991. "Corporate Structure, Liquidity, and Investment: Evidence from Japanese Industrial Groups," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(1), pages 33-60.
    31. Fazzari, Steven M & Athey, Michael J, 1987. "Asymmetric Information, Financing Constraints, and Investment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(3), pages 481-487, August.
    32. Simon Gilchrist & Charles Himmelberg, 1999. "Investment: Fundamentals and Finance," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1998, volume 13, pages 223-274, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    33. Bruce C. Greenwald & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1993. "Financial Market Imperfections and Business Cycles," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(1), pages 77-114.
    34. Valderrama, Maria Teresa, 2001. "Credit channel and investment behaviour in Austria: a micro-econometric approach," Working Paper Series 108, European Central Bank.
    35. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    36. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    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. Jean-Bernard Chatelain & Andrea Generale & Ignacio Hernando & Philip Vermeulen & Ulf von Kalckreuth, 2003. "New Findings on Firm Investment and Monetary Policy Transmission in the Euro Area," Post-Print halshs-00119490, HAL.
    2. Catalina Delgado González, 2004. "Inversión y restricciones crediticias en Colombia en la década de los noventa," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 22(47), pages 8-55, December.
    3. Escribá, F. Javier & Murgui, Ma. José, 2009. "Government policy and industrial investment determinants in Spanish regions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 479-488, July.
    4. Marie Diron & Maria Cruz Manzano & Thomas Westermann, 2005. "Forecasting aggregate investment in the euro area: do indicators of financial conditions help?," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Investigating the relationship between the financial and real economy, volume 22, pages 206-27, Bank for International Settlements.

    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. 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.
    2. Günay, Hüseyin & Kılınç, Mustafa, 2015. "Credit market imperfections and business cycle asymmetries in Turkey," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 79-98.
    3. Hyun-Euy Kim, 2007. "The Interest Rate Channel of Monetary Transmission under Low Inflation in Korea (in Korean)," Economic Analysis (Quarterly), Economic Research Institute, Bank of Korea, vol. 13(1), pages 1-56, March.
    4. Jean-Bernard Chatelain & Andrea Generale & Ignacio Hernando & Philip Vermeulen & Ulf von Kalckreuth, 2003. "New Findings on Firm Investment and Monetary Policy Transmission in the Euro Area," Post-Print halshs-00119490, HAL.
    5. Laeven, Luc, 2000. "Does financial liberalization relax financing constraints on firms ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2467, The World Bank.
    6. 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.
    7. Jean-Bernard Chatelain, 2002. "Structural modelling of investment and financial constraints: Where do we stand?," Working Paper Research 28, National Bank of Belgium.
    8. Maria Angelica Arbelaez & Juan Jose Echavarria, 2002. "Credit, Financial Liberalization and Manufacturing Investment in Colombia," Research Department Publications 3145, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    9. Sevcan Yesiltas, 2009. "Financing Constraints and Investment: The Case of Turkish Manufacturing Firms," 2009 Meeting Papers 874, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Martinsson, Gustav, 2009. "Finance and R&D Investments - is there a debt overhang effect on R&D investments?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 174, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    11. Koo, Jaewoon & Maeng, Kyunghee, 2005. "The effect of financial liberalization on firms' investments in Korea," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 281-297, April.
    12. Espanol, Paula, 2006. "Why exporters can be financially constrained in a recently liberalised economy? A puzzle based on Argentinean firms during the 1990s," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2006 7, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    13. von Kalckreuth, Ulf & Hernando, Ignacio & Generale, Andrea & Chatelain, Jean Bernard & Vermeulen, Philip, 2001. "Firm Investment and Monetary Policy Transmission in the Euro Area," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2001,20, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    14. Jean-Bernard Chatelain & Michael Ehrmann & Andrea Generale & Jorge Martínez-Pagés & Philip Vermeulen & Andreas Worms, 2003. "Monetary Policy Transmission in the Euro Area: New Evidence From Micro Data on Firms and Banks," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(2-3), pages 731-742, 04/05.
    15. Mr. Alvaro Piris Chavarri, 2010. "Investment by Large Firms in Argentina," IMF Working Papers 2010/003, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Daniele Tori & Özlem Onaran, 2018. "The effects of financialization on investment: evidence from firm-level data for the UK," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 42(5), pages 1393-1416.
    17. Vijayakumaran, Ratnam, 2021. "Impact of managerial ownership on investment and liquidity constraints: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    18. Jean-Bernard Chatelain & Andre Tiomo, 2002. "Investment and the Cost of Capital in the Nineties in France: A Panel Data Investigation," Post-Print halshs-00112540, HAL.
    19. Vlieghe, Gertjan & Stephen Bond & Alexander Klemm & Rain Newton-Smith & Murtaza Syed, 2003. "The roles of expected profitability, Tobin's Q and cash flow in econometric models of company investment," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2003 212, Royal Economic Society.
    20. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95.

    More about this item

    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:bde:wpaper:0214. 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: Ángel Rodríguez. Electronic Dissemination of Information Unit. Research Department. Banco de España (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdegves.html .

    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.