IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/15248.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Investment and Capital Constraints: Repatriations Under the American Jobs Creation Act

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Faulkender
  • Mitchell Petersen

Abstract

The American Jobs Creation Act (AJCA) significantly lowered US firms' tax cost when accessing their unrepatriated foreign earnings. Using this temporary shock to the cost of internal financing, we examine the role of capital constraints in firms' investment decisions. Controlling for the capacity to repatriate foreign earnings under the AJCA, we find that a majority of the funds repatriated by capital constrained firms were allocated to approved domestic investment. While unconstrained firms account for a majority of repatriated funds, no increase in investment resulted. Contrary to other examinations of the AJCA, we find little change in leverage and equity payouts.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Faulkender & Mitchell Petersen, 2009. "Investment and Capital Constraints: Repatriations Under the American Jobs Creation Act," NBER Working Papers 15248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15248
    Note: CF
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w15248.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilchrist, Simon & Himmelberg, Charles P., 1995. "Evidence on the role of cash flow for investment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 541-572, December.
    2. 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.
    3. Timothy Erickson & Toni M. Whited, 2000. "Measurement Error and the Relationship between Investment and q," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(5), pages 1027-1057, October.
    4. Michael Faulkender & Mitchell A. Petersen, 2006. "Does the Source of Capital Affect Capital Structure?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(1), pages 45-79.
    5. Lamont, Owen, 1997. "Cash Flow and Investment: Evidence from Internal Capital Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 83-109, March.
    6. Julie H. Collins & John R. M. Hand & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2000. "Valuing Deferral: The Effect of Permanently Reinvested Foreign Earnings on Stock Prices," NBER Chapters, in: International Taxation and Multinational Activity, pages 143-172, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Graham, John R., 1996. "Debt and the marginal tax rate," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 41-73, May.
    8. Anil K Kashyap & Owen A. Lamont & Jeremy C. Stein, 1994. "Credit Conditions and the Cyclical Behavior of Inventories," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 109(3), pages 565-592.
    9. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    10. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 2000. "Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Are Not Valid Measures of Financing Constraints," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 115(2), pages 707-712.
    11. Joshua D. Rauh, 2006. "Investment and Financing Constraints: Evidence from the Funding of Corporate Pension Plans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 33-71, February.
    12. Mihir A. Desai & C. Fritz Foley & James R. Hines Jr., 2002. "Dividend Policy inside the Firm," NBER Working Papers 8698, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello & Michael S. Weisbach, 2004. "The Cash Flow Sensitivity of Cash," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(4), pages 1777-1804, August.
    14. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    15. Dhammika Dharmapala & C. Fritz Foley & Kristin J. Forbes, 2011. "Watch What I Do, Not What I Say: The Unintended Consequences of the Homeland Investment Act," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(3), pages 753-787, June.
    16. 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.
    17. Fritz Foley, C. & Hartzell, Jay C. & Titman, Sheridan & Twite, Garry, 2007. "Why do firms hold so much cash? A tax-based explanation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 579-607, December.
    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. Schauer, Catharina & Elsas, Ralf & Breitkopf, Nikolas, 2019. "A new measure of financial constraints applicable to private and public firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 270-295.
    2. Coad, Alex, 2010. "Neoclassical vs evolutionary theories of financial constraints: Critique and prospectus," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 206-218, August.
    3. Acharya, Viral V. & Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo, 2007. "Is cash negative debt? A hedging perspective on corporate financial policies," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 515-554, October.
    4. Mulier, Klaas & Schoors, Koen & Merlevede, Bruno, 2016. "Investment-cash flow sensitivity and financial constraints: Evidence from unquoted European SMEs," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 182-197.
    5. von Beschwitz, Bastian, 2018. "Cash windfalls and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(2), pages 287-319.
    6. Williamson, Rohan & Yang, Jie, 2021. "Tapping into financial synergies: Alleviating financial constraints through acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    7. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2012. "Financial Constraints in Intangible Investments: Evidence from Japanese firms," Discussion papers 12045, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Bastian von Beschwitz, 2016. "Cash Windfalls and Acquisitions," International Finance Discussion Papers 1159, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Zeynep Kabukcuoglu, 2019. "The cyclical behavior of R&D investment during the Great Recession," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 301-323, January.
    10. Franzoni, Francesco, 2009. "Underinvestment vs. overinvestment: Evidence from price reactions to pension contributions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 491-518, June.
    11. Joseph P. H. Fan & Li Jin & Guojian Zheng, 2016. "Revisiting the Bright and Dark Sides of Capital Flows in Business Groups," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(4), pages 509-528, April.
    12. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello & Michael S. Weisbach, 2002. "Corporate Demand for Liquidity," NBER Working Papers 9253, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Srinivasan, Anand & Thampy, Ashok, 2017. "The effect of relationships with government-owned banks on cash flow constraints: Evidence from India," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 361-373.
    14. Becker, Bo & Jacob, Marcus & Jacob, Martin, 2013. "Payout taxes and the allocation of investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(1), pages 1-24.
    15. Hansen, Erwin & Wagner, Rodrigo, 2017. "Stockpiling cash when it takes time to build: Exploring price differentials in a commodity boom," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 197-212.
    16. Stein, Jeremy C., 2003. "Agency, information and corporate investment," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 111-165, Elsevier.
    17. Michelle L. Barnes & N. Aaron Pancost, 2010. "Internal sources of finance and the Great Recession," Working Papers 10-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    18. Duchin, Ran & Ozbas, Oguzhan & Sensoy, Berk A., 2010. "Costly external finance, corporate investment, and the subprime mortgage credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 418-435, September.
    19. Bayraktar, Nihal, 2014. "Fixed investment/fundamental sensitivities under financial constraints," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 25-59.
    20. Klaas Mulier & Koen Schoors & Bruno Merlevede, 2014. "Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivity and the Cost of External Finance," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 14/890, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:15248. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.