Do Financing Constraints Explain Why Investment is Correlated with Cash Flow?

48 Pages Posted: 11 Aug 2000 Last revised: 29 Nov 2022

See all articles by Steven N. Kaplan

Steven N. Kaplan

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); University of Chicago - Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship

Luigi Zingales

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Date Written: September 1995

Abstract

This paper investigates the sources of the correlation between corporate cash flow and investment by undertaking an in-depth analysis of the 49 low-dividend firms identified by Fazzari, Hubbard, and Petersen (1988) as having an unusually high investment-cash flow sensitivity. We find that in only 15% of firm-years is there some question as to a firm's ability to access internal or external funds to increase investment. Strikingly, those firms that appear less financially constrained exhibit a significantly greater investment- cash flow sensitivity than firms that appear more financially constrained. We find this pattern for the entire sample period, for sub-periods, and for individual years. The results indicate that a higher sensitivity cannot be interpreted as evidence that a firm is more financially constrained. We discuss reasons and provide evidence why the opposite may be true. These findings challenge much of the existing evidence on the effects of financial constraints.

Suggested Citation

Kaplan, Steven Neil and Zingales, Luigi, Do Financing Constraints Explain Why Investment is Correlated with Cash Flow? (September 1995). NBER Working Paper No. w5267, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=225331

Steven Neil Kaplan (Contact Author)

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Luigi Zingales

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