Mis-allocation within firms: internal finance and international trade

This paper develops a novel theory of capital mis-allocation within firms that stems from managers' empire building and informational frictions within the organization. Introducing an internal capital market into a two-factor model of multi-segment firms, we show that competition imposes discipline on managers and reduces capital mis-allocation across divisions, thereby lowering the conglomerate discount. The theory can explain why exporters exhibit a lower conglomerate discount than non-exporters (a new fact we establish). We then exploit the China shock as an exogenous shock to competition to test the model's predictions with data on US companies. Results show that tougher competition significantly reduces managers' over-reporting of costs and improves the allocation of capital within firms.