IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/urb/wpaper/09_01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Firms’ Investment in the Presence of Labor and Financial Market Imperfections

Author

Listed:
  • Giorgio Calcagnini

    () (Dipartimento di Economia e Metodi Quantitativi, Università di Urbino)

  • Germana Giombini

    () (Dipartimento di Economia e Metodi Quantitativi, Università di Urbino (Italy))

  • Enrico Saltari

    () (Dipartimento di Economia Pubblica, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”)

Abstract

This paper analyses how financial and labor market imperfections jointly influence investment. The contemporaneous presence of imperfections in both markets gives rise to a negative correlation between EPL and investment: firms facing negative shocks see their financial constraints worsen in countries with greater labor market rigidities. Internal funds have an overall positive impact on investment, notwithstanding the presence of labor market rigidities acts as a disincentive to the use internal funds for financing new projects. If capital is sunk and the legal environment favors ex-post profit appropriation by workers, firms use internal funds for ends alternative to fixed investment. Our results support the effort put forward by European institutions to reform both markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Giorgio Calcagnini & Germana Giombini & Enrico Saltari, 2009. "Firms’ Investment in the Presence of Labor and Financial Market Imperfections," Working Papers 0901, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2009.
    • Handle: RePEc:urb:wpaper:09_01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.uniurb.it/RePEc/urb/wpaper/WP_09_01.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2008
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 2000. "Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities are Useful: A Comment on Kaplan and Zingales," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 115(2), pages 695-705.
    2. Olivier Blanchard & Thomas Philippon, 2004. "The Quality of Labor Relations and Unemployment," NBER Working Papers 10590, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Saint-Paul, Gilles, 2002. "Macroeconomic Fluctuations and the Timing of Labour Market Reforms," CEPR Discussion Papers 3646, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Alberto Alesina & Silvia Ardagna & Giuseppe Nicoletti & Fabio Schiantarelli, 2005. "Regulation And Investment," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(4), pages 791-825, June.
    5. Bigsten, Arne, et al, 1999. " Investment in Africa's Manufacturing Sector: A Four Country Panel Data Analysis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(4), pages 489-512, November.
    6. Etienne Wasmer & Philippe Weil, 2004. "The Macroeconomics of Labor and Credit Market Imperfections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 944-963, September.
    7. 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.
    8. Beck, Thorsten & Asl Demirguc-Kunt & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2002. "Financing patterns around the world : the role of institutions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2905, The World Bank.
    9. Toke Aidt & Zafiris Tzannatos, 2002. "Unions and Collective Bargaining : Economic Effects in a Global Environment," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 15241.
    10. Lensink, Robert & Sterken, Elmer, 2000. "Capital Market Imperfections, Uncertainty and Corporate Investment in the Czech Republic," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 33(1-2), pages 53-70.
    11. Marcello M. Estevão, 2004. "Why is Productivity Growth in the Euro Area so Sluggish?," IMF Working Papers 04/200, International Monetary Fund.
    12. 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.
    13. Giorgio Calcagnini & Enrico Saltari, 2002. "Labour and financial market determinants of investiment decisions in Europe," Working Papers 56, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Public Economics.
    14. Cleary, Sean & Povel, Paul & Raith, Michael, 2007. "The U-Shaped Investment Curve: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(01), pages 1-39, March.
    15. Brambor, Thomas & Clark, William Roberts & Golder, Matt, 2006. "Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(01), pages 63-82, December.
    16. Ansgar Belke & Rainer Fehn, "undated". "Institutions and Structural Unemployment: Do Capital-Market Imperfections Matter?," German Working Papers in Law and Economics 2001-default/2001/1-1008, Berkeley Electronic Press.
    17. Pierre, Gaelle & Scarpetta, Stefano, 2004. "Employment regulations through the eyes of employers - do they matter and how do firms respond to them?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3463, The World Bank.
    18. Giovanni Pica, 2001. "Labour Demand and Financial Markets Imperfections," STUDI ECONOMICI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2001(73).
    19. Stephen Nickell & Luca Nunziata & Wolfgang Ochel, 2005. "Unemployment in the OECD Since the 1960s. What Do We Know?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(500), pages 1-27, January.
    20. Andrew B. Abel & Olivier J. Blanchard, 1986. "Investment and Sales: Some Empirical Evidence," NBER Working Papers 2050, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Laeven, Luc & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2006. "The determinants of financing obstacles," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 932-952, October.
    22. Bond, Stephen & Van Reenen, John, 2007. "Microeconometric Models of Investment and Employment," Handbook of Econometrics,in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 6, chapter 65 Elsevier.
    23. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    24. Joao F. Gomes, 2001. "Financing Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1263-1285, December.
    25. Samuel Bentolila & Giuseppe Bertola, 1990. "Firing Costs and Labour Demand: How Bad is Eurosclerosis?," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 57(3), pages 381-402.
    26. Sterken, Elmer & Lensink, Robert & Bo, Hong, 2001. "Investment, cash flow, and uncertainty: evidence for the Netherlands," CCSO Working Papers 200114, University of Groningen, CCSO Centre for Economic Research.
    27. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    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. Giorgio Calcagnini & Annalisa Ferrando & Germana Giombini, 2015. "Multiple market imperfections, firm profitability and investment," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 95-120, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Investment Models; Financing Constraints; Labor Protection Legislation; Panel Data Models;

    JEL classification:

    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    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:urb:wpaper:09_01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Carmela Nicoletti). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/feurbit.html .

    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 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.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.