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Extricate: Financial Pressure and Firm Behaviour in Spain

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  • Andrew Benito

    () (Banco de España)

  • Ignacio Hernando

    () (Banco de España)

Abstract

This paper examines financial pressure facing Spanish companies. A number of stylised facts regarding the financial performance and financing decisions of Spanish firms are first presented for the period 1985-2000 using repeated annual cross-sections of around 5,000 manufacturing and retail firms. (i) In periods of general financial fragility, most notably during the recession of 1993, the experience of the most financially vulnerable companies is even more distressed than movements in aggregate or average figures would suggest (ii) the burden of borrowing costs has declined for most companies in the mid-/late-1990s, but particularly for those at the top of the distribution (iii) the cross-sectional distribution of indebtedness across firms has remained remarkably stable but (iv) this conceals significant variation in debt ratios for individual firms. Using panel data methods, the effects of financial pressure associated with servicing debt on a number of aspects of corporate behaviour are then examined, namely fixed investment, employment (both permanent and temporary), inventories and dividend policies. Our results quantify the responsiveness of each of these responses to financial pressure experienced by firms in Spain. Quantitatively large effects of financial pressure on investment and employment are estimated, although these work through more quickly in the case of fixed investment. The effects on employment are found to be larger and work through more quickly in the case of temporary than permanent employment. We also find significant effects on inventory investment and dividend payments confirming these additional mechanisms of adjustment by companies in Spain in resp onse to financial pressure.

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File URL: http://www.bde.es/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/PublicacionesSeriadas/DocumentosTrabajo/02/Fic/dt0227e.pdf
File Function: First version, November 2002
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Banco de España in its series Banco de España Working Papers with number 0227.

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Length: 30 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2002
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:bde:wpaper:0227

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  1. Arellano, Manuel & Bond, Stephen, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 277-97, April.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Ignacio Hernando & Carmen Martínez-Carrascal, 2003. "The impact of financial variables on firms' real decisions: evidence from Spanish firm-level data," Banco de España Working Papers 0319, Banco de España.
  2. Paloma López-García & José Manuel Montero & Enrique Moral-Benito, 2012. "Business cycles and investment in intangibles: evidence from Spanish firms," Banco de España Working Papers 1219, Banco de España.
  3. López Martín, Mª Del Carmen & Rodero Franganillo, Adolfo, 2005. "Los activos de las instituciones de inversión colectiva de carácter financiero/Assets by Financial Institutions for Collective Investment," Estudios de Economía Aplicada, Estudios de Economía Aplicada, vol. 23, pages 93-124, Abril.
  4. Arturo Galindo & Alejandro Izquierdo & José M. Montero, 2006. "Real exchange rates, dollarization and industrial employment in Latin America," Banco de España Working Papers 0601, Banco de España.
  5. Ignacio Hernando & Carmen Martínez-Carrascal, 2005. "The impact of financial variables on firms’ real decisions: evidence from Spanish firm-level data," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Investigating the relationship between the financial and real economy, volume 22, pages 40-63 Bank for International Settlements.
  6. Hernando, Ignacio & Martínez-Carrascal, Carmen, 2008. "The impact of financial variables on firms' real decisions: Evidence from Spanish firm-level data," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 543-561, March.
  7. Andrew Benito, 2003. "The capital structure decisions of firms: is there a pecking order?," Banco de España Working Papers 0310, Banco de España.

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