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Does the Investment Opportunities Bias Affect the Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities of Unlisted SMEs?

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  • Bert D’Espallier
  • Alessandra Guariglia

Abstract

Using a panel of 5,999 small and medium-sized Belgian enterprises (SMEs) over the period 2002-2008, we identify three measures of investment opportunities suitable for unlisted firms. We then estimate firm-varying investment-cash flow sensitivities (ICFS) from reduced-form investment equations that include these measures, and compare them with those derived from a model that does not control for investment opportunities. We find that all our models yield similar ICFS estimates, which are significantly related to a wide set of proxies for financing constraints. These findings suggest that the ICFS of SMEs do not simply reflect investment opportunities. The investment opportunities bias may therefore have been overstated in previous literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Bert D’Espallier & Alessandra Guariglia, 2009. "Does the Investment Opportunities Bias Affect the Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities of Unlisted SMEs?," Discussion Papers 09/12, University of Nottingham, Centre for Finance, Credit and Macroeconomics (CFCM).
    • Handle: RePEc:not:notcfc:09/12
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lopez-Gracia, Jose & Aybar-Arias, Cristina, 2000. "An Empirical Approach to the Financial Behaviour of Small and Medium Sized Companies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 55-63, February.
    2. Bert D'Espallier & Sigrid Vandemaele & Ludo Peeters, 2008. "Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities or Cash-Cash Flow Sensitivities? An Evaluative Framework for Measures of Financial Constraints," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(7-8), pages 943-968.
    3. Bert D'Espallier & Sigrid Vandemaele & Ludo Peeters, 2008. "Investment‐Cash Flow Sensitivities or Cash‐Cash Flow Sensitivities? An Evaluative Framework for Measures of Financial Constraints," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(7‐8), pages 943-968, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sprenger, Carsten & Lazareva, Olga, 2022. "Corporate governance and investment-cash flow sensitivity: Evidence from Russian unlisted firms," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 71-100.
    2. Gül, Selçuk & Taştan, Hüseyin, 2020. "The impact of monetary policy stance, financial conditions, and the GFC on investment-cash flow sensitivity," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 692-707.
    3. Roberto Ganau & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2022. "Credit constraints in European SMEs: does regional institutional quality matter?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(15), pages 1388-1392, September.
    4. Milos Markovic & Michael A. Stemmer, 2017. "Firm Growth Dynamics and Financial Constraints: Evidence from Serbian Firms," Post-Print halshs-01489222, HAL.
    5. Valentina Peruzzi, 2017. "Does family ownership structure affect investment-cash flow sensitivity? Evidence from Italian SMEs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(43), pages 4378-4393, September.
    6. Driver, Ciaran & Muñoz-Bugarin, Jair, 2019. "Financial constraints on investment: Effects of firm size and the financial crisis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 441-457.
    7. Bertoni, Fabio & Croce, Annalisa & Guerini, Massimiliano, 2015. "Venture capital and the investment curve of young high-tech companies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 159-176.
    8. Ilker Yilmaz, 2022. "Leverage and Investment Cash Flow Sensitivity: Evidence from Muscat Securities Market in Oman," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, August.
    9. Anagnostopoulou, Seraina C. & Avgoustaki, Argyro, 2023. "The impact of human resource practices on corporate investment efficiency," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    10. Abdolhossein Talebi Najafabadi* & Zahra Farhadi & Narjes Kamali Kermani, 2018. "The Relationship Between Social Responsibility and Investment-Cash Flow ?Sensitivity ? and the Role of Agency Costs," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 4(11), pages 294-302, 11-2018.
    11. Théo Nicolas, 2022. "Short-term financial constraints and SMEs’ investment decision: evidence from the working capital channel," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1885-1914, April.
    12. Saroj Koul & Ivan W. Taylor & Oluwabunmi A. Falebita & Takuma Ono & Rowland Chen & Mia T. Vogel, 2022. "Examining the success of women of color-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States: A system dynamics perspective," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1373-1401, December.
    13. Théo Nicolas, 2019. "How Do Short-term Financial Constraints Affect SMEs’ Long-Term Investment: Evidence from the Working Capital Channel," Working papers 731, Banque de France.

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