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The asymmetric impact of economic policy uncertainty on firm-level investment in South Africa: Firm-level evidence from administrative tax data

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  • Keagile Lesame

Abstract

This paper uses firm-level data and a news-based measure of economic policy uncertainty to provide empirical evidence that economic policy uncertainty has a negative impact on firm-level investment in South Africa. Firms' investment decisions in response to uncertainty reflect firms' heterogeneity. Medium-sized firms and, to a different extent, small firms reduce their investment by much more than large firms in response to increased policy uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Keagile Lesame, 2021. "The asymmetric impact of economic policy uncertainty on firm-level investment in South Africa: Firm-level evidence from administrative tax data," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-52, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-52
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic policy; policy uncertainty; Investment; South Africa; Firm heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

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