IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/red/sed012/803.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Macroeconomics of Firms' Savings

Author

Listed:
  • Viktoria Hnatkovska

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Roc Armenter

    (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

Abstract

The U.S. non-financial corporate sector became a net lender vis-a-vis the rest of the economy in the early 2000s. We document this fact in the aggregate and firm-level data. We then develop a structural dynamic model with investment to study the firms' financing decisions. Debt is fiscally advantageous but subject to a no-default borrowing constraint. Equity allows the firm to suspend distributions to shareholders when the cash flow is negative. Firms accumulate financial assets for precautionary reasons, yet value equity as partial insurance against shocks. The calibrated model replicates the large fraction of firms with net savings observed in the period 2000-2007. We also find that the rise in corporate savings over the past 40 years can be mostly attributed to a fall in the cost of equity relative to debt, driven by lower dividend taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Viktoria Hnatkovska & Roc Armenter, 2012. "The Macroeconomics of Firms' Savings," 2012 Meeting Papers 803, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:sed012:803
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://red-files-public.s3.amazonaws.com/meetpapers/2012/paper_803.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. François Gourio & Jianjun Miao, 2010. "Firm Heterogeneity and the Long-Run Effects of Dividend Tax Reform," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 131-168, January.
    2. Whited, Toni M., 2006. "External finance constraints and the intertemporal pattern of intermittent investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 467-502, September.
    3. David Thesmar & Mathias Thoenig, 2011. "Contrasting Trends in Firm Volatility," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 143-180, October.
    4. Ivo Welch, 2004. "Capital Structure and Stock Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(1), pages 106-131, February.
    5. Thomas W. Bates & Kathleen M. Kahle & René M. Stulz, 2009. "Why Do U.S. Firms Hold So Much More Cash than They Used To?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 1985-2021, October.
    6. Leigh A. Riddick & Toni M. Whited, 2009. "The Corporate Propensity to Save," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1729-1766, August.
    7. Raj Chetty & Emmanuel Saez, 2005. "Dividend Taxes and Corporate Behavior: Evidence from the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 791-833.
    8. Servaes, Henri & Mahrt-Smith, Jan & Dittmar, Amy, 2002. "Corporate Liquidity," CEPR Discussion Papers 3499, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Eugene F. Fama, 2002. "Testing Trade-Off and Pecking Order Predictions About Dividends and Debt," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 1-33, March.
    10. Francois Gourio & Jianjun Miao, 2011. "Transitional Dynamics of Dividend and Capital Gains Tax Cuts," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(2), pages 368-383, April.
    11. Andrea Gamba & Alexander Triantis, 2008. "The Value of Financial Flexibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2263-2296, October.
    12. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    13. Christopher A. Hennessy & Toni M. Whited, 2005. "Debt Dynamics," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1129-1165, June.
    14. Opler, Tim & Pinkowitz, Lee & Stulz, Rene & Williamson, Rohan, 1999. "The determinants and implications of corporate cash holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 3-46, April.
    15. Francois Gourio & Jianjun Miao, 2011. "Transitional Dynamics of Dividend and Capital Gains Tax Cuts," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(2), pages 368-383, April.
    16. Jean Tirole, 2006. "The Theory of Corporate Finance," Post-Print hal-00173191, HAL.
    17. Virgiliu Midrigan & Daniel Yi Xu, 2014. "Finance and Misallocation: Evidence from Plant-Level Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 422-458, February.
    18. Paul J. Irvine & Jeffrey Pontiff, 2009. "Idiosyncratic Return Volatility, Cash Flows, and Product Market Competition," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1149-1177, March.
    19. Raj Chetty & Emmanuel Saez, 2006. "The Effects of the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut on Corporate Behavior: Interpreting the Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 124-129, May.
    20. Brennan, Michael J & Schwartz, Eduardo S, 1984. "Optimal Financial Policy and Firm Valuation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 593-607, July.
    21. Alexander S. Gorbenko, 2010. "Temporary versus Permanent Shocks: Explaining Corporate Financial Policies," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(7), pages 2591-2647, July.
    22. Tobias J. Moskowitz & Annette Vissing-Jørgensen, 2002. "The Returns to Entrepreneurial Investment: A Private Equity Premium Puzzle?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 745-778, September.
    23. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Whited, Toni M., 2011. "Capital structure dynamics and transitory debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 235-261, February.
    24. Amir Sufi, 2009. "Bank Lines of Credit in Corporate Finance: An Empirical Analysis," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1057-1088, March.
    25. James M. Poterba, 1987. "Tax Policy and Corporate Saving," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 18(2), pages 455-516.
    26. Amir Sufi, 2009. "Bank Lines of Credit in Corporate Finance: An Empirical Analysis," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1057-1088.
    27. Kristian Rydqvist & Joshua Spizman & Ilya A. Strebulaev, 2011. "Government Policy and Ownership of Financial Assets," NBER Working Papers 17522, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. Lins, Karl V. & Servaes, Henri & Tufano, Peter, 2010. "What drives corporate liquidity? An international survey of cash holdings and lines of credit," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 160-176, October.
    29. Joao F. Gomes, 2001. "Financing Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1263-1285, December.
    30. Paul J. Irvine & Jeffrey Pontiff, 2009. "Idiosyncratic Return Volatility, Cash Flows, and Product Market Competition," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 1149-1177.
    31. Shyam-Sunder, Lakshmi & C. Myers, Stewart, 1999. "Testing static tradeoff against pecking order models of capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 219-244, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tito Boeri & Pietro Garibaldi & Espen R. Moen, 2014. "Financial Constraints in Search Equilibrium: Mortensen and Pissarides Meet Holmstrom and Tirole," CEP Discussion Papers dp1317, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Curtis, Chadwick C. & Garín, Julio & Saif Mehkari, M., 2017. "Inflation and the evolution of firm-level liquid assets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 24-35.
    3. Zhiguo He & Péter Kondor, 2016. "Inefficient Investment Waves," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 735-780, March.
    4. Philippe Bacchetta & Kenza Benhima & Céline Poilly, 2019. "Corporate Cash and Employment," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 30-66, July.
    5. Ricardo Bebczuk & Eduardo Cavallo, 2016. "Is business saving really none of our business?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(24), pages 2266-2284, May.
    6. Loukas Karabarbounis & Brent Neiman, 2012. "Declining Labor Shares and the Global Rise of Corporate Saving," NBER Working Papers 18154, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Boeri, Tito & Garibaldi, Pietro & Moen, Espen R., 2014. "Financial Constraints in Search Equilibrium," CEPR Discussion Papers 10266, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Martin Boileau & Nathalie Moyen, 2016. "Corporate Cash Holdings And Credit Line Usage," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1481-1506, November.
    9. Michael Siemer, 2014. "Firm Entry and Employment Dynamics in the Great Recession," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2014-56, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Armenter, Roc & Hnatkovska, Viktoria, 2017. "Taxes and capital structure: Understanding firms’ savings," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 13-33.
    2. Gryglewicz, Sebastian, 2011. "A theory of corporate financial decisions with liquidity and solvency concerns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 365-384, February.
    3. Ma, Liang & Mello, Antonio S. & Wu, Youchang, 2020. "First-mover advantage, time to finance, and cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo & Weisbach, Michael S., 2011. "Corporate financial and investment policies when future financing is not frictionless," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 675-693, June.
    5. Patrick Bolton & Hui Chen & Neng Wang, 2011. "A Unified Theory of Tobin's q, Corporate Investment, Financing, and Risk Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1545-1578, October.
    6. Soku Byoun, 2021. "Financial flexibility demand and corporate financial decisions," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 481-509, August.
    7. Lockhart, G. Brandon, 2014. "Credit lines and leverage adjustments," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 274-288.
    8. Danis, András & Rettl, Daniel A. & Whited, Toni M., 2014. "Refinancing, profitability, and capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(3), pages 424-443.
    9. Chen, Peter & Karabarbounis, Loukas & Neiman, Brent, 2017. "The global rise of corporate saving," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 1-19.
    10. Strebulaev, Ilya A. & Whited, Toni M., 2012. "Dynamic Models and Structural Estimation in Corporate Finance," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 6(1–2), pages 1-163, November.
    11. jae sim & Dalida Kadyrzhanova & Antonio Falato, 2013. "Rising Intangible Capital, Shrinking Debt Capacity, and the US Corporate Savings Glut," 2013 Meeting Papers 1151, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello & Igor Cunha & Michael S. Weisbach, 2014. "Corporate Liquidity Management: A Conceptual Framework and Survey," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 135-162, December.
    13. Acharya, Viral & Almeida, Heitor & Ippolito, Filippo & Perez, Ander, 2014. "Credit lines as monitored liquidity insurance: Theory and evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(3), pages 287-319.
    14. Katagiri, Mitsuru, 2014. "A macroeconomic approach to corporate capital structure," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 79-94.
    15. Aydin, Deniz & Kim, Olivia S., 2024. "Precautionary Debt Capacity," EconStor Preprints 281672, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    16. Arnold, Marc, 2014. "Managerial cash use, default, and corporate financial policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 305-325.
    17. Douglas (DJ) Fairhurst, 2020. "Financing seasonal demand," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(3), pages 839-870, September.
    18. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Whited, Toni M., 2011. "Capital structure dynamics and transitory debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 235-261, February.
    19. May, Anthony D., 2014. "Corporate liquidity and the contingent nature of bank credit lines: Evidence on the costs and consequences of bank default," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 410-429.
    20. Martin Boileau & Nathalie Moyen, 2016. "Corporate Cash Holdings And Credit Line Usage," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1481-1506, November.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:red:sed012:803. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christian Zimmermann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sedddea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.