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Does debt discipline state-owned firms? Evidence from a panel of Italian firms

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This paper investigates whether financial pressure has an impact on the performance of state-owned firms. By combining different theoretical frameworks, we explore the conditions under which debt discipline becomes effective even for state firms. Using a panel of 1318 Italian state and private manufacturing companies, for the period 1977-1993, we estimate total factor productivity and employment equations, allowing the financial factors to have a different effect under "soft" and "hard" budget constraint regimes. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, the results show that state firms do respond to financial pressure by increasing total productivity and reducing employment in a "hard" budget constraint environment.

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  • Elisabetta Bertero & Laura Rondi, 1997. "Does debt discipline state-owned firms? Evidence from a panel of Italian firms," CERIS Working Paper 199711, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    • Handle: RePEc:csc:cerisp:199711
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    Cited by:

    1. Giovanni Fraquelli, 1998. "Before and after privatization: a comparison between competitive firms," CERIS Working Paper 199802, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    2. Giovanni Fraquelli & Fabrizio Erbetta, 1999. "Privatization in Italy: an analysis of factors productivity and technical efficiency," CERIS Working Paper 199905, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    3. Elisabetta Bertero & Laura Rondi, 1998. "Managerial discretion and investment decisions of state-owned firms: Evidence from a panel of italian companies," CERIS Working Paper 199807, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    debt; high leverage; financial distress; state-owned firms; soft budget constraint; total productivity; employment; panel data; Italian firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out

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