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Investment, Credit Rationing and the Soft Budget Constraint: Evidence from Czech Panel Data

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  • Lubomir Lizal
  • Jan Svejnar

Abstract

Strategic restructuring of firms through investment is key to a transition from plan to market. Using data on industrial firms in the Czech Republic during 1992-98, we find that (a) foreign owned companies invest the most and cooperatives the least, (b) private firms do not invest more than state-owned ones and (c) cooperatives and small firms are credit rationed. Given the large volume of non-performing bank loans to firms and the high rate of investment of large state owned and private firms, our findings also suggest that these firms operate under a soft budget constraint. Estimates of a dynamic model, together with the support for the neoclassical model, suggest that firms started to behave consistently with profit-maximization.

Suggested Citation

  • Lubomir Lizal & Jan Svejnar, 2001. "Investment, Credit Rationing and the Soft Budget Constraint: Evidence from Czech Panel Data," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 363, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    • Handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:2001-363
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Investment; restructuring; credit rationing; soft budget constraint; ownership; legal status; transition to a market economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • P21 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D92 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice, Investment, Capacity, and Financing

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