IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausecr/v27y1994i1p83-100.html

Balance Sheet Restructuring and Investment

Author

Listed:
  • Karen Mills
  • Steven Morling
  • Warren Tease

Abstract

This article looks at the evolution of corporate balance sheets and investment over the past few years. We find that many companies have significantly improved their balance sheets in this time. Leverage has been reduced, and this, coupled with lower nominal interest rates, has improved the interest cover and cash flows of the corporate sector. For many firms, the process of balance sheet repair has proceeded a long way so that the extent to which the financial position of firms will impinge on investment is much lower than it was a few years ago. Looking further ahead, it appears that the rate of return to investing in capital is relatively high, at least when judged against the standards of earlier downturns. With the recovery picking up pace we should, therefore, see firms more inclined to expand their capital expenditure and less focused on financial restructuring.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen Mills & Steven Morling & Warren Tease, 1994. "Balance Sheet Restructuring and Investment," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 27(1), pages 83-100, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:27:y:1994:i:1:p:83-100
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8462.1994.tb00826.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8462.1994.tb00826.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-8462.1994.tb00826.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Gertler, 1988. "Financial structure and aggregate economic activity: an overview," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 559-596.
    2. Ben S. Bernanke & Mark Gertler, 1986. "Agency costs, collateral, and business fluctuations," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    3. Chris Ryan, 1990. "Inflation and Corporation Taxation in Australia," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp9011, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    4. Mark Gertler & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1988. "Financial factors in business fluctuations," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 33-78.
    5. Adrian Blundell-Wignall & Marianne Gizycki, 1992. "Credit Supply and Demand and the Australian Economy," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp9208, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    6. Philip Lowe & Geoffrey Shuetrim, 1992. "The Evolution of Corporate Financial Structure: 1973–1990," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp9216, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    7. Thierry A. Wizman, 1992. "What moves investment? Cash flows in a forward-looking model of capital expenditures," Research Paper 9201, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    8. Ben S. Bernanke & Mark Gertler, 1986. "Agency Costs, Collateral, and Business Fluctuations," NBER Working Papers 2015, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Ben Bernanke & Mark Gertler, 1990. "Financial Fragility and Economic Performance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(1), pages 87-114.
    10. WARWICK J. McKIBBIN & ERIC S. SIEGLOFF, 1988. "A Note on Aggregate Investment in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 64(3), pages 209-215, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Philip Lowe & Thomas Rohling, 1993. "Agency Costs, Balance Sheets and the Business Cycle," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp9311, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    2. Karen Mills & Steve Morling & Warren Tease, 1993. "Balance Sheet Restructuring and Investment," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp9308, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    3. Warren Tease & Jenny Wilkinson, 1993. "The Provision of Financial Services – Trends, Prospects and Implications," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp9315, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    4. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1991. "Introduction to "Financial Markets and Financial Crises"," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Markets and Financial Crises, pages 1-10, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Mark Gertler, 1988. "Financial structure and aggregate economic activity: an overview," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 559-596.
    6. Hubbard, R Glenn & Kashyap, Anil K, 1992. "Internal Net Worth and the Investment Process: An Application to U.S. Agriculture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(3), pages 506-534, June.
    7. Philip Lowe, 1992. "The Impact of Financial Intermediaries on Resource Allocation and Economic Growth," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp9213, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    8. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1990. "Introduction to "Asymmetric Information, Corporate Finance, and Investment"," NBER Chapters, in: Asymmetric Information, Corporate Finance, and Investment, pages 1-14, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Moshe Babaioff & Yoav Kolumbus & Eyal Winter, 2020. "Optimal Collaterals in Multi-Enterprise Investment Networks," Papers 2011.06247, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    10. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95.
    11. Anna Bottasso, 1996. "Firms’ Financial Structure And Real Decisions: A Critical Survey Of The Empirical Literature," CERIS Working Paper 199623, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    12. Pranab Kumar Das, 2014. "Finance Constraint and Firm Investment: A Survey of Econometric Methodology," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(2), pages 138-138, May.
    13. Goodhart, Charles, 1989. "The Conduct of Monetary Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(396), pages 293-346, June.
    14. Yongsheng Jiang & Dong Zhao & Andrew Sanderford & Jing Du, 2018. "Effects of Bank Lending on Urban Housing Prices for Sustainable Development: A Panel Analysis of Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, February.
    15. Akisik, Orhan & Gal, Graham, 2023. "IFRS, financial development and income inequality: An empirical study using mediation analysis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    16. Levine, Ross & Loayza, Norman & Beck, Thorsten, 1999. "ɇ‘Èž ĸ­Ä»‹Ä¸Žç» Ƶžå¢Žé•¿Ï¼Šå› Æžœå…³Ç³»Ä¸Žåžÿå›," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2059, The World Bank.
    17. Aadland, David, 2005. "Detrending time-aggregated data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 287-293, December.
    18. Mundaca, B. Gabriela, 2007. "Corporate investment, cash flow level and market imperfections: The case of Norway," Memorandum 03/2007, Oslo University, Department of Economics, revised 23 Feb 2009.
    19. Charles W. Calomiris & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1993. "Internal Finance and Investment: Evidence from the Undistributed Profits Tax of 1936-1937," NBER Working Papers 4288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Riccardo Fiorentini & Roberto Tamborini, 2002. "Monetary Policy, Credit and Aggregate Supply: The Evidence from Italy," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 31(3), pages 451-491, November.

    More about this item

    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:bla:ausecr:v:27:y:1994:i:1:p:83-100. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mimelau.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.