IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5639.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An Analysis of Divisional Investment Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Hyun-Han Shin
  • Rene M. Stulz

Abstract

This paper investigates the divisional investment policies of diversified firms. We find that investment of the smallest division of diversified firms is significantly related to the cash flow of the other segments. We then show that the smallest division's investment is more sensitive to the cash flow of the other divisions for firms where one expects aggregate investment to be related to cash flow also, namely low q firms and firms with high leverage. This and other evidence we provide is consistent with what we call the bureaucratic rigidity hypothesis. This hypothesis states that relative allocations of investment funds in diversified firms are sticky. We fail to find support for the view that diversified firms allocate more funds to divisions in industries with better investment opportunities

Suggested Citation

  • Hyun-Han Shin & Rene M. Stulz, 1996. "An Analysis of Divisional Investment Policies," NBER Working Papers 5639, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5639
    Note: CF
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5639.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1995. "Do Financing Constraints Explain Why Investment is Correlated with Cash Flow?," NBER Working Papers 5267, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Bernanke, Ben & Gertler, Mark & Gilchrist, Simon, 1996. "The Financial Accelerator and the Flight to Quality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(1), pages 1-15, February.
    3. 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.
    4. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    5. Berger, Philip G. & Ofek, Eli, 1995. "Diversification's effect on firm value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 39-65, January.
    6. Comment, Robert & Jarrell, Gregg A., 1995. "Corporate focus and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 67-87, January.
    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. David S. Scharfstein & Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "The Dark Side of Internal Capital Markets: Divisional Rent‐Seeking and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2537-2564, December.
    2. repec:dgr:rugsom:01e60 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Dikova, Desislava & Smeets, Roger & Garretsen, Harry & Van Ees, Hans, 2013. "Immediate responses to financial crises: A focus on US MNE subsidiaries," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 202-215.
    4. Felipe Balmaceda, 2002. "Corporate Diversification: Good for Some Bad for Others," Documentos de Trabajo 141, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    5. Houston, Joel & James, Christopher & Marcus, David, 1997. "Capital market frictions and the role of internal capital markets in banking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 135-164, November.
    6. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1998. "Capital-Market Imperfections and Investment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 193-225, March.
    7. Robert Stretcher & Mary Funck & Steve Johnson, 2017. "Capital investment and non-constant marginal cost of capital," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 41(1), pages 27-50, January.
    8. von Eije, Henk & Westerman, Wim, 2002. "Multinational cash management and conglomerate discounts in the euro zone," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 453-464, August.
    9. 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.
    10. Eije, Henk von & Westerman, Wim, 2001. "Multinational cash management and conglomerate discounts in the euro zone," Research Report 01E60, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    11. Donglin Li, 2014. "Dissecting and connecting the growth and accounting distortion components of accruals," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 1-28, January.
    12. Mudambi, Ram, 1999. "MNE internal capital markets and subsidiary strategic independence," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 197-211, April.

    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. Vojislav Maksimovic & Gordon Phillips, 2002. "Do Conglomerate Firms Allocate Resources Inefficiently Across Industries? Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 721-767, April.
    2. Campa, Jose M. & Chang, P. H. Kevin & Refalo, James F., 2002. "An options-based analysis of emerging market exchange rate expectations: Brazil's Real Plan, 1994-1999," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 227-253, October.
    3. Axel GAUTIER & Florian HEIDER, 2001. "What do internal capital markets do ? Redistribution vs. incentives," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2001015, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    4. Patrick Bolton & David S. Scharfstein, 1998. "Corporate Finance, the Theory of the Firm, and Organizations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 95-114, Fall.
    5. Raghuram Rajan & Henri Servaes & Luigi Zingales, 2000. "The Cost of Diversity: The Diversification Discount and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 35-80, February.
    6. Martin, John D. & Sayrak, Akin, 2003. "Corporate diversification and shareholder value: a survey of recent literature," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 37-57, January.
    7. 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.
    8. Jose Manuel Campa & Simi Kedia, 2002. "Explaining the Diversification Discount," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1731-1762, August.
    9. Claessens, Constantijn A. & Djankov, Simeon & Joseph P. H. Fan & Lang, Larry H. P., 1998. "Diversification and efficiency of investment by East Asian corporations," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2033, The World Bank.
    10. Laeven, Luc, 2001. "International evidence on the value of product and geographic diversity," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2729, The World Bank.
    11. Matsusaka, John G. & Nanda, Vikram, 2002. "Internal Capital Markets and Corporate Refocusing," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 176-211, April.
    12. David J. Denis & Diane K. Denis & Keven Yost, 2002. "Global Diversification, Industrial Diversification, and Firm Value," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 1951-1979, October.
    13. Jandik, Tomas & Makjija, Anil K., 2004. "Can Diversification Create Value? Evidence from the Electric Utility Industry," Working Paper Series 2005-7, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    14. David S. Scharfstein & Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "The Dark Side of Internal Capital Markets: Divisional Rent‐Seeking and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2537-2564, December.
    15. Doukas, John A. & Kan, Ozgur B., 2008. "Investment decisions and internal capital markets: Evidence from acquisitions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1484-1498, August.
    16. Ferris, Stephen P. & Sen, Nilanjan & Lim, Chee Yeow & Yeo, Gillian H. H., 2002. "Corporate focus versus diversification: the role of growth opportunities and cashflow," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 231-252, July.
    17. Billett, Matthew T. & Mauer, David C., 2000. "Diversification and the value of internal capital markets: The case of tracking stock," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(9), pages 1457-1490, September.
    18. Klein, Peter G, 2001. "Were the Acquisitive Conglomerates Inefficient?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(4), pages 745-761, Winter.
    19. Laurent Batsch, 2003. "Le recentrage:une revue des approches financières," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 6(2), pages 43-65, June.
    20. 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.

    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:nbr:nberwo:5639. 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.