An 'excess sensitivity' of investment to internal funds (cash flow) is typically interpreted as evidence for the presence of financing constraints. Building on this, we empirically investigate the possibility of an asymmetric response of investment to the availability of internal funds across expectation states. According to our results the impact of cash flow on investment spending is exacerbated during periods of 'pessimism'. Finally, allowing for both potential sources of asymmetries (across different states of expectations and the business cycle) our results indicate that both sources are significant, with the expectations-driven asymmetry being significantly deeper highlighting the paramount role of expectations.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.