IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/rvmgts/v17y2023i5d10.1007_s11846-022-00603-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Policy uncertainty and corporate investment: public versus private firms

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Dreyer

    (University of Muenster)

  • Oliver Schulz

    (University of Muenster)

Abstract

Using a sample of comparably sized public listed and private firms from nine European countries, we show that public firms reduce their investments by about 50% more than private firms in response to an increase in policy-related uncertainty. We find suggestive evidence that this can be explained by public firms’ management being typically subject to greater shareholder scrutiny than private firms’ management. Furthermore, only public firms invest more efficiently when confronted with uncertainty. Thus, private firms may benefit from emulating the decision-making processes of public firms in uncertain times.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Dreyer & Oliver Schulz, 2023. "Policy uncertainty and corporate investment: public versus private firms," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 1863-1898, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:rvmgts:v:17:y:2023:i:5:d:10.1007_s11846-022-00603-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11846-022-00603-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11846-022-00603-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11846-022-00603-y?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. Malcolm Baker & Jeremy C. Stein & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2003. "When Does the Market Matter? Stock Prices and the Investment of Equity-Dependent Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 118(3), pages 969-1005.
    2. Andrew Greenland & Mihai Ion & John Lopresti, 2019. "Exports, investment and policy uncertainty," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1248-1288, August.
    3. Ryan Zalla, 2017. "Economic Policy Uncertainty in Ireland," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 45(2), pages 269-271, June.
    4. Ingersoll, Jonathan E, Jr & Ross, Stephen A, 1992. "Waiting to Invest: Investment and Uncertainty," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(1), pages 1-29, January.
    5. Attig, Najah & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Zheng, Xiaolan, 2021. "Dividends and economic policy uncertainty: International evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Taglioni, Daria & Zavacka, Veronika, 2012. "Innocent bystanders : how foreign uncertainty shocks harm exporters," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6226, The World Bank.
    7. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    8. Ben S. Bernanke, 1983. "Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Cyclical Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(1), pages 85-106.
    9. Giannetti, Mariassunta, 2003. "Do Better Institutions Mitigate Agency Problems? Evidence from Corporate Finance Choices," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 185-212, March.
    10. Roni Michaely & Michael R. Roberts, 2012. "Corporate Dividend Policies: Lessons from Private Firms," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(3), pages 711-746.
    11. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    12. Kang, Wensheng & Lee, Kiseok & Ratti, Ronald A., 2014. "Economic policy uncertainty and firm-level investment," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 39(PA), pages 42-53.
    13. R. David Mclean & Mengxin Zhao, 2014. "The Business Cycle, Investor Sentiment, and Costly External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(3), pages 1377-1409, June.
    14. Robert McDonald & Daniel Siegel, 1986. "The Value of Waiting to Invest," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(4), pages 707-727.
    15. Gao, Huasheng & Harford, Jarrad & Li, Kai, 2017. "CEO Turnover–Performance Sensitivity in Private Firms," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 583-611, April.
    16. Hyunseob Kim & Howard Kung, 2017. "The Asset Redeployability Channel: How Uncertainty Affects Corporate Investment," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 245-280.
    17. Stilianos Fountas & Panagiota Karatasi & Paraskevi Tzika, 2018. "Economic Policy Uncertainty in Greece: Measuring Uncertainty for the Greek Macroeconomy," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 16(1), pages 80-92.
    18. Smietanka, Pawel & Bloom, Nicholas & Mizen, Paul, 2018. "Business investment, cash holding and uncertainty since the Great Financial Crisis," Bank of England working papers 753, Bank of England.
    19. Raymond J. Fisman & Rakesh Khurana & Matthew Rhodes-Kropf & Soojin Yim, 2014. "Governance and CEO Turnover: Do Something or Do the Right Thing?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(2), pages 319-337, February.
    20. Mortal, Sandra & Reisel, Natalia, 2013. "Capital Allocation by Public and Private Firms," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(1), pages 77-103, February.
    21. Steven R. Grenadier & Andrey Malenko, 2010. "A Bayesian Approach to Real Options: The Case of Distinguishing between Temporary and Permanent Shocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1949-1986, October.
    22. Nicholas Bloom, 2009. "The Impact of Uncertainty Shocks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 623-685, May.
    23. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2001. "The Internet and the Investor," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 41-54, Winter.
    24. Brad M. Barber & Chip Heath & Terrance Odean, 2003. "Good Reasons Sell: Reason-Based Choice Among Group and Individual Investors in the Stock Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(12), pages 1636-1652, December.
    25. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2002. "Online Investors: Do the Slow Die First?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(2), pages 455-488, March.
    26. Anolick, Nina & Batten, Jonathan A. & Kinateder, Harald & Wagner, Niklas, 2021. "Time for gift giving: Abnormal share repurchase returns and uncertainty," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    27. Almeida, Heitor & Fos, Vyacheslav & Kronlund, Mathias, 2016. "The real effects of share repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(1), pages 168-185.
    28. Armelius, Hanna & Hull, Isaiah & Stenbacka Köhler, Hanna, 2017. "The timing of uncertainty shocks in a small open economy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 31-34.
    29. Erik P. Gilje & Jerome P. Taillard, 2016. "Do Private Firms Invest Differently than Public Firms? Taking Cues from the Natural Gas Industry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(4), pages 1733-1778, August.
    30. Wang, Zigan & Yin, Qie Ellie & Yu, Luping, 2021. "Real effects of share repurchases legalization on corporate behaviors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 197-219.
    31. Huseyin Gulen & Mihai Ion, 2016. "Editor's Choice Policy Uncertainty and Corporate Investment," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 523-564.
    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. Ilyas, Muhammad & Khan, Aamir & Nadeem, Muhammad & Suleman, Muhammad Tahir, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty, oil price shocks and corporate investment: Evidence from the oil industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    2. Abakah, Emmanuel Joel Aikins & Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Gil-Alana, Luis Alberiko, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty: Persistence and cross-country linkages," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    3. Drobetz, Wolfgang & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Janzen, Malte, 2018. "Policy uncertainty, investment, and the cost of capital," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 28-45.
    4. Li, Kaifeng & Xia, Bobo & Chen, Yun & Ding, Ning & Wang, Jie, 2021. "Environmental uncertainty, financing constraints and corporate investment: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    5. Grossmann, Axel & Ngo, Thanh, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and ADR mispricing," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    6. Long, Shaobo & Pei, Hongxia & Tian, Hao & Li, Fangfang, 2021. "Asymmetric impacts of economic policy uncertainty, capital cost, and raw material cost on China’s investment," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 129-144.
    7. Caixe, Daniel Ferreira, 2022. "Corporate governance and investment sensitivity to policy uncertainty in Brazil," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PB).
    8. Wei-Fong Pan, 2019. "Geopolitical Risk and R&D investment," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2019-11, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    9. Chen, Yanyan, 2022. "Does political turnover affect corporate investment? Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    10. Xiaoqiong Wang & Siqi Wei & Xiaoyang Zhu, 2024. "Economic policy uncertainty and heterogeneous institutional investor horizons," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 39-67, January.
    11. Hoang, Khanh & Arif, Muhammad & Nguyen, Cuong, 2022. "Corporate investment and government policy during the COVID-19 crisis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 677-696.
    12. Arbatli Saxegaard, Elif C. & Davis, Steven J. & Ito, Arata & Miake, Naoko, 2022. "Policy uncertainty in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Liu, Guanchun & Zhang, Chengsi, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and firms' investment and financing decisions in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    14. Andrew Greenland & Mihai Ion & John Lopresti, 2019. "Exports, investment and policy uncertainty," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(3), pages 1248-1288, August.
    15. Tajaddini, Reza & Gholipour, Hassan F., 2021. "Economic uncertainty and business formation: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    16. Ji (George) Wu & Jian Zhang & Yiwen Wu & Dongmin Kong, 2020. "When to go abroad: economic policy uncertainty and Chinese firms’ overseas investment," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(2), pages 1435-1470, June.
    17. Quader, Syed Manzur, 2023. "The interplay between uncertainty, managerial decision making, and firm value: Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    18. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Xiao, Shunyi, 2021. "Policy-related risk and corporate financing behavior: Evidence from China’s listed companies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 539-547.
    19. Kundu, Srikanta & Paul, Amartya, 2022. "Effect of economic policy uncertainty on stock market return and volatility under heterogeneous market characteristics," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 597-612.
    20. Kim, Youngju & Lee, Seohyun & Lim, Hyunjoon, 2023. "Uncertainty, credit and investment: Evidence from firm-bank matched data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Uncertainty; Investment; Public versus private firms; Shareholder scrutiny;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E66 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General Outlook and Conditions
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    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:spr:rvmgts:v:17:y:2023:i:5:d:10.1007_s11846-022-00603-y. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.