IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v120y2020ics0378426620302120.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Debt overhang, global growth opportunities, and investment

Author

Listed:
  • Barbiero, Francesca
  • Popov, Alexander
  • Wolski, Marcin

Abstract

Using a pan-European data set of 8.5 million firms, we find that firms with high debt financing invest relatively more, than otherwise similar firms, if they are operating in sectors facing good global growth opportunities. The positive impact of a marginal increase in debt on investment in good-global-growth-opportunities sectors disappears if firm debt is already excessive, if it is dominated by short maturities, and during systemic banking crises. Our results are consistent with theories of the disciplining role of debt, as well as with models highlighting the negative link between firm- and bank-related agency problems and corporate investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbiero, Francesca & Popov, Alexander & Wolski, Marcin, 2020. "Debt overhang, global growth opportunities, and investment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:120:y:2020:i:c:s0378426620302120
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2020.105950
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426620302120
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2020.105950?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gita Gopinath & Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan & Loukas Karabarbounis & Carolina Villegas-Sanchez, 2017. "Capital Allocation and Productivity in South Europe," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1915-1967.
    2. Wurgler, Jeffrey, 2000. "Financial markets and the allocation of capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 187-214.
    3. Smith, Clifford Jr. & Watts, Ross L., 1992. "The investment opportunity set and corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 263-292, December.
    4. Fabiano Schivardi & Enrico Sette & Guido Tabellini, 2022. "Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(641), pages 391-423.
    5. Douglas W. Diamond & Zhiguo He, 2014. "A Theory of Debt Maturity: The Long and Short of Debt Overhang," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(2), pages 719-762, April.
    6. Luc Laeven & Fabian Valencia, 2020. "Systemic Banking Crises Database II," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 68(2), pages 307-361, June.
    7. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1998. "Financial Dependence and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 559-586, June.
    8. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello, 2007. "Financial Constraints, Asset Tangibility, and Corporate Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1429-1460, 2007 12.
    9. Jeremy Greenwood & Juan Sanchez & Cheng Wang, 2013. "Quantifying the Impact of Financial Development on Economic Development," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 194-215, January.
    10. Sanford J. Grossman & Oliver D. Hart, 1982. "Corporate Financial Structure and Managerial Incentives," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Information and Uncertainty, pages 107-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirguc-Kunt & Luc Laeven & Ross Levine, 2008. "Finance, Firm Size, and Growth," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(7), pages 1379-1405, October.
    12. Ferrando, Annalisa & Wolski, Marcin, 2018. "Investment of financially distressed firms: The role of trade credit," EIB Working Papers 2018/04, European Investment Bank (EIB).
    13. Lang, Larry & Ofek, Eli & Stulz, Rene M., 1996. "Leverage, investment, and firm growth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 3-29, January.
    14. Inessa Love, 2003. "Financial Development and Financing Constraints: International Evidence from the Structural Investment Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 765-791, July.
    15. Sudheer Chava & Michael R. Roberts, 2008. "How Does Financing Impact Investment? The Role of Debt Covenants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2085-2121, October.
    16. Barclay, Michael J & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1995. "The Maturity Structure of Corporate Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(2), pages 609-631, June.
    17. Geert Bekaert & Campbell R. Harvey & Christian Lundblad & Stephan Siegel, 2007. "Global Growth Opportunities and Market Integration," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1081-1137, June.
    18. Gan, Jie, 2007. "Collateral, debt capacity, and corporate investment: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 709-734, September.
    19. Laurence Booth & Varouj Aivazian & Asli Demirguc‐Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2001. "Capital Structures in Developing Countries," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 87-130, February.
    20. Storz, Manuela & Koetter, Michael & Setzer, Ralph & Westphal, Andreas, 2017. "Do we want these two to tango? On zombie firms and stressed banks in Europe," IWH Discussion Papers 13/2017, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    21. Banerjee, Abhijit V. & Duflo, Esther, 2005. "Growth Theory through the Lens of Development Economics," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 473-552, Elsevier.
    22. Brown, James R. & Martinsson, Gustav & Petersen, Bruce C., 2012. "Do financing constraints matter for R&D?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1512-1529.
    23. Ricardo J. Caballero & Takeo Hoshi & Anil K. Kashyap, 2008. "Zombie Lending and Depressed Restructuring in Japan," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1943-1977, December.
    24. Stijn Claessens & Luc Laeven, 2003. "Financial Development, Property Rights, and Growth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2401-2436, December.
    25. Hubbard, R Glenn & Kashyap, Anil K & Whited, Toni M, 1995. "International Finance and Firm Investment," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(3), pages 683-701, August.
    26. Simon Gilchrist & Jae W. Sim & Egon Zakrajsek, 2013. "Misallocation and Financial Market Frictions: Some Direct Evidence from the Dispersion in Borrowing Costs," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 159-176, January.
    27. Joe Peek & Eric S. Rosengren, 2005. "Unnatural Selection: Perverse Incentives and the Misallocation of Credit in Japan," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1144-1166, September.
    28. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    29. George Allayannis & Gregory W. Brown & Leora F. Klapper, 2003. "Capital Structure and Financial Risk: Evidence from Foreign Debt Use in East Asia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2667-2710, December.
    30. Raymond Fisman & Inessa Love, 2007. "Financial Dependence and Growth Revisited," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(2-3), pages 470-479, 04-05.
    31. Berkovitch, Elazar & Kim, E Han, 1990. "Financial Contracting and Leverage Induced Over- and Under-Investment Incentives," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 765-794, July.
    32. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç‐Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2005. "Financial and Legal Constraints to Growth: Does Firm Size Matter?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 137-177, February.
    33. 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.
    34. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    35. Diamond, Douglas W., 1993. "Seniority and maturity of debt contracts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 341-368, June.
    36. Whited, Toni M, 1992. "Debt, Liquidity Constraints, and Corporate Investment: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1425-1460, September.
    37. Douglas W. Diamond, 1991. "Debt Maturity Structure and Liquidity Risk," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(3), pages 709-737.
    38. Ahn, Seoungpil & Denis, David J. & Denis, Diane K., 2006. "Leverage and investment in diversified firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 317-337, February.
    39. Ferrando, Annalisa & Altomonte, Carlo & Blank, Sven & Meinen, Philipp & Iudice, Matteo & Felt, Marie-Hélène & Neugebauer, Katja & Siedschlag, Iulia, 2015. "Assessing the financial and financing conditions of firms in Europe: the financial module in CompNet," Working Paper Series 1836, European Central Bank.
    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. Yang, Bo & Gan, Liu & Wen, Chunhui, 2021. "Moral hazard, debt overhang and capital structure," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    2. Chiwei SU & Kaihua WANG, 2022. "Does Optimal Capital Structure Exist in Chinese Military Enterprises? Evidence from Industrial Heterogeneity," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(4), pages 128-149, December.
    3. Maurin, Laurent & Wolski, Marcin, 2021. "Aggregate productivity slowdown in Europe: New evidence from corporate balance sheets," EIB Working Papers 2021/04, European Investment Bank (EIB).
    4. Kolev, Atanas & Randall, Timothy, 2024. "The effect of uncertainty on investment: Evidence from EU survey data," EIB Working Papers 2024/02, European Investment Bank (EIB).
    5. Bruno Albuquerque, 2024. "Corporate debt booms, financial constraints, and the investment nexus," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(5), pages 766-789, August.
    6. Alessandro Barbera & Áron Gereben & Marcin Wolski, 2022. "Estimating conditional treatment effects of EIB lending to SMEs in Europe," BIS Working Papers 1006, Bank for International Settlements.
    7. Deniz Igan & Ali Mirzaei & Tomoe Moore, 2022. "A shot in the arm: stimulus packages and firm performance during Covid-19," BIS Working Papers 1014, Bank for International Settlements.
    8. Machokoto, Michael & Bayai, Innocent & Kadzima, Marvelous, 2023. "The nonlinear impact of debt on employment: Does institutional quality matter?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    9. Stéphane Dees & Stefan Gebauer & Thomas Goncalves & Camille Thubin, 2022. "The Financing Structure of NonFinancial Corporations and MacroFinancial Implications in France," Working papers 880, Banque de France.
    10. Meki, Muhammad, 2023. "Levelling the debt–equity playing field: Evidence from Belgium," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    11. Igan, Deniz & Mirzaei, Ali & Moore, Tomoe, 2023. "A shot in the arm: Economic support packages and firm performance during COVID-19," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Raschid Amamou & Áron Gereben & Marcin Wolski, 2023. "Assessing the impact of the EIB’s intermediated lending to SMEs during funding shocks," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 975-1007, March.

    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. Wolski, Marcin & Barbiero, Francesca & Popov, Alexander, 2018. "Debt Overhang and Investment Efficiency," CEPR Discussion Papers 12784, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Wolski, Marcin & Barbiero, Francesca & Popov, Alexander, 2018. "Debt Overhang and Investment Efficiency," CEPR Discussion Papers 12784, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Moritz Schularick, 2021. "Corporate indebtedness and macroeconomic stabilisation from a long-term perspective," ECONtribute Policy Brief Series 024, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    4. April M. Knill, 2013. "Does Foreign Portfolio Investment Reach Small Listed Firms?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 19(2), pages 251-303, March.
    5. Kim, Sang-Joon & Bae, John & Oh, Hannah, 2019. "Financing strategically: The moderation effect of marketing activities on the bifurcated relationship between debt level and firm valuation of small and medium enterprises," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 663-681.
    6. James R. Brown & Gustav Martinsson & Bruce C. Petersen, 2013. "Law, Stock Markets, and Innovation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1517-1549, August.
    7. Simone Lenzu & Francesco Manaresi, 2019. "Sources and implications of resource misallocation: new evidence from firm-level marginal products and user costs," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 485, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    8. Iwaki, Hiromichi & Saito, Junyu, 2022. "Does rollover risk matter to payout policies? Evidence from Japanese listed firms," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    9. Vina Christina Nugroho & Kim Sung Suk, 2019. "The Relationship Between Leverage, Maturity, And Investment Decision: Evidence From Emerging Markets," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 10(1).
    10. Harjeet S. Bhabra & Tong Liu & Dogan Tirtiroglu, 2008. "Capital Structure Choice in a Nascent Market: Evidence from Listed Firms in China," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 37(2), pages 341-364, June.
    11. Li, Xiang, 2022. "How does economic policy uncertainty affect corporate debt maturity?," IWH Discussion Papers 5/2022, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    12. Naeem, Kashif & Li, Matthew C., 2019. "Corporate investment efficiency: The role of financial development in firms with financing constraints and agency issues in OECD non-financial firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 53-68.
    13. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 1999. "Institutions, financial markets, and firm debt maturity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 295-336, December.
    14. Popov, Alexander, 2017. "Evidence on finance and economic growth," Working Paper Series 2115, European Central Bank.
    15. Tiago Loncan & Styliani Panetsidou & Angelos Synapis, 2024. "Leverage, investment and institutional environments: Evidence from emerging markets," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 849-866, January.
    16. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Roberto Ganau & Kristina Maslauskaite & Monica Brezzi, 2021. "Credit constraints, labor productivity, and the role of regional institutions: Evidence from manufacturing firms in Europe," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 299-328, March.
    17. 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.
    18. Shang, Chenguang, 2021. "Dare to play with fire? Managerial ability and the use of short-term debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    19. Cai, Jun & Cheung, Yan-Leung & Goyal, Vidhan K., 1999. "Bank monitoring and the maturity structure of Japanese corporate debt issues," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 7(3-4), pages 229-249, August.
    20. Antonczyk, Ron Christian & Salzmann, Astrid Juliane, 2014. "Overconfidence and optimism: The effect of national culture on capital structure," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 132-151.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Debt overhang; Global growth opportunities; Investment; Banking crises;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

    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:eee:jbfina:v:120:y:2020:i:c:s0378426620302120. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    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.