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Surprise, Surprise - Measuring Firm-level Investment Innovations

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  • Bachmann, Rüdiger
  • Hristov, Atanas

Abstract

Firms expect certain investment expenditures. Firms realize certain investment expenditures. The difference is an investment surprise. With the help of the IFO Investment Survey for the German manufacturing sector we measure firms? (quantitative) investment expectations and firms? (quantitative) investment realizations on a yearly basis and construct a panel of firm-level investment innovations. This paper documents its cross-sectional and time-series properties and thus provides direct, econometrics-free quantitative discipline on the idiosyncratic shock processes used in structural heterogeneous-firm models. We find: 1) there is excess kurtosis in investment innovations, but no significant skewness; 2) the cross-sectional average of investment innovations is procyclical; 3) the cross-sectional dispersion of investment innovations is countercyclical; 4) the cross-sectional skewness and kurtosis of investment innovations is largely acyclical; 5) the cross-sectional average of the firm-individual time series volatility of investment innovations is countercyclical and highly positively correlated with the cross-sectional dispersion of investment innovations; 6) measures of firm-idiosyncratic risk have sizeable fluctuations, in the range of aggregate investment fluctuations.

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  • Bachmann, Rüdiger & Hristov, Atanas, 2014. "Surprise, Surprise - Measuring Firm-level Investment Innovations," CEPR Discussion Papers 9894, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9894
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    2. CHEN Cheng & SENGA Tatsuro & SUN Chang & ZHANG Hongyong, 2018. "Expectation Formation and Firm Activities: New evidence from a business outlook survey in Japan," Discussion papers 18059, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Link, Sebastian & Peichl, Andreas & Roth, Christopher & Wohlfart, Johannes, 2023. "Information frictions among firms and households," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 99-115.
    4. Bachmann, Rüdiger & Zorn, Peter, 2020. "What drives aggregate investment? Evidence from German survey data," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    5. Fiori, Giuseppe & Scoccianti, Filippo, 2023. "The economic effects of firm-level uncertainty: Evidence using subjective expectations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 92-105.
    6. Chen, Cheng & Senga, Tatsuro & Sun, Chang & Zhang, Hongyong, 2023. "Uncertainty, imperfect information, and expectation formation over the firm’s life cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 60-77.
    7. Gaganan Awano & Nicholas Bloom & Ted Dolby & Paul Mizen & Rebecca Riley & Tatsuro Senga & John Van Reenen & Jenny Vyas & Philip Wales, 2018. "A firm-level perspective on micro- and macro-level uncertainty; An analysis of business expectations and uncertainty from the UK Management and Expectations Survey," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2018-10, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    8. Lukas Buchheim & Sebastian Link, 2017. "The Effect of Disaggregate Information on the Expectation Formation of Firms," CESifo Working Paper Series 6768, CESifo.
    9. Nicholas Bloom & Takafumi Kawakubo & Charlotte Chunming Meng & Paul Mizen & Rebecca Riley & Tatsuro Senga & John Van Reenen, 2021. "Do Well Managed Firms Make Better Forecasts?," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2021-18, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    10. Cosmin Ilut & Matthias Kehrig & Martin Schneider, 2018. "Slow to Hire, Quick to Fire: Employment Dynamics with Asymmetric Responses to News," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(5), pages 2011-2071.
    11. Petr Sedláček, 2020. "Creative Destruction and Uncertainty," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 1814-1843.
    12. Danilo Cascaldi-Garcia & Cisil Sarisoy & Juan M. Londono & Bo Sun & Deepa D. Datta & Thiago Ferreira & Olesya Grishchenko & Mohammad R. Jahan-Parvar & Francesca Loria & Sai Ma & Marius Rodriguez & Ilk, 2023. "What Is Certain about Uncertainty?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 624-654, June.
    13. Bachmann, Rüdiger, 2019. "Comments on “Monetary policy announcements and expectations: Evidence from German firms”," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 64-68.
    14. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2019. "Uncertainty over production forecasts: An empirical analysis using monthly quantitative survey data," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 163-179.
    15. CHEN Cheng & SENGA Tatsuro & SUN Chang & ZHANG Hongyong, 2016. "Firm Expectations and Investment: Evidence from the China-Japan Island Dispute," Discussion papers 16090, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    16. Bofinger, Peter & Schnabel, Isabel & Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Wieland, Volker, 2015. "Zukunftsfähigkeit in den Mittelpunkt. Jahresgutachten 2015/16 [Focus on Future Viability. Annual Report 2015/16]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201516, September.
    17. David R. Munro, 2021. "Consumer Behavior and Firm Volatility," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(4), pages 845-873, June.
    18. CHEN Cheng & SENGA Tatsuro & SUN Chang & ZHANG Hongyong, 2020. "Information Acquisition and Price Setting under Uncertainty: New Survey Evidence," Discussion papers 20078, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    19. Stefan Sauer & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2020. "ifo Handbuch der Konjunkturumfragen," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 88.
    20. Ruediger Bachmann & Kai Carstensen & Stefan Lautenbacher & Martin Schneider, 2021. "Uncertainty and Change: Survey Evidence of Firms' Subjective Beliefs," NBER Working Papers 29430, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Firm data; Expectation errors; Higher moments; Idiosyncratic shocks; investment; Survey data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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