Internal and External Financing of Financially Constrained Firms J. B. Chaya and Jungwon Suhb This draft: August 2008 Abstract Using firm-level data from thirty-five countries over the period 1998-2004, we conduct a comprehensive investigation of the relation between financial constraints and the sensitivity of investments to internal and external funds. Our investigation shows that, in the majority of countries, the investments of financially constrained firms are not highly sensitive to internal funds, which confirms the results of prior U.S. studies. Moreover, in many countries, financially constrained firms use substantial amounts of external funds, and their investments tend to be more sensitive to external financing than to internal financing. Our evidence is at odds with the standard view in the financial constraint literature that financially constrained firms face restricted access to external financing. JEL Classification: G31, G32 Keywords: financial constraints, investment-cash flow sensitivity, external financing a Sungkyungkwan University, 3-53 Myungryun-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea 110-745, phone: +82-2-760-0484, email: [email protected] b Ewha Womans University, 11-1 Daehyun-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea 120-750, phone: +82-2-3277-4650, fax: +82-2-3227-2776, email: [email protected] 0 Internal and External Financing of Financially Constrained Firms Abstract Using firm-level data from thirty-five countries over the period 1998-2004, we conduct a comprehensive investigation of the relation between financial constraints and the sensitivity of investments to internal and external funds. Our investigation shows that, in the majority of countries, the investments of financially constrained firms are not highly sensitive to internal funds, which confirms the results of prior U.S. studies. Moreover, in many countries, financially constrained firms use substantial amounts of external funds, and their investments tend to be more sensitive to external financing than to internal financing. Our evidence is at odds with the standard view in the financial constraint literature that financially constrained firms face restricted access to external financing. JEL Classification: G31, G32 Keywords: financial constraints, investment-cash flow sensitivity, external financing 1 I. Introduction One of the most controversial issues in corporate finance literature is whether investment-cash flow sensitivity is a measure of financial constraints. This issue is first raised in the seminal study of Fazzari, Hubbard and Petersen (1988, FHP88, hereafter). They argue that the pecking order theory predicts that financially constrained firmsi.e. firms that face high costs of external financingwill rely heavily on internal funds and thus their investments will display high sensitivities to the availability of internal funds. However, several later studies of U.S. firms do not support this prediction of FHP88. For example, Kaplan and Zingales (1997, KZ97, hereafter) and Cleary (1999, Cleary99, hereafter) suggest that investment-cash flow sensitivity may not reflect financial constraints. Alti (2003) also argues that FHP88’s prediction can be obtained even without the presence of financial constraints. In this study, we use firm-level data from thirty-five countries to investigate the question of how investment-cash flow sensitivities vary with financial constraints. Following prior U.S. studies, we identify financially constrained firms based on financial status variables, such as creditworthiness, firm size and payout ratio. Firms with poor financial status are deemed financially constrained because they may face restricted access to external financing. Our international data allow us to conduct a comprehensive test of the relation (or lack thereof) between investment-cash flow sensitivity and financial constraints. Our international investigation, however, goes beyond simply checking the findings of prior U.S. studies. In particular, unlike prior studies, we examine the extent to which financially constrained firms’ investments are sensitive to external financing. Doing so provides insight into the nature of financially constrained firms, because, if high costs of external financing are a key driver for financial constraints, then the sensitivities of financially constrained firms’ investments to external funds will be relatively low, because these firms face restricted access to external financing. Our motivation for a multi-country investigation arises from the possibility that a firm’s investment-cash flow sensitivity may be affected by the degree of financial development in the country in which the firm operates. For example, advanced financial markets in the U.S. allow firms to raise external capital with relative ease. Thus, firms with poor financial status in the U.S. may not be substantially constrained. This could be why prior U.S. studies fail to find high investment-cash flow sensitivities for firms with poor financial status. By contrast, in countries without advanced financial markets, firms must rely more on internal funds. Especially, the absence of advanced financial markets may force firms with poor financial status to rely more heavily on internal funds than do firms with good financial status, if external financial markets are restricted to firms with good financial status. Thus, firms with poor 2 financial status are more likely to display high investment-cash flow sensitivities in many countries outside of the U.S. if it is true that investment-cash flow sensitivities reflect financial constraints. Among prior studies, Cleary (2006) and Kadapakkam, Kumar and Riddick (1998) provide international evidence on investment-cash flow sensitivity. Our current investigation, however, is different from these studies in at least two respects. First, while these prior studies examine a sample of only six or seven major countries, we use more comprehensive data, covering thirty-five countries in the world. Focusing only on firms in major countries may not provide a proper test of FHP88’s prediction because firms in those countries are less likely to be financially constrained due to the presence of advanced financial markets. Second and more important, we examine the sensitivity of constrained firms’ investments, not just to internal funds, but to external funds. This enables us to obtain additional insight into the nature of the relation between financial constraints and investment-cash flow sensitivity. In identifying financially constrained firms, we use proxy variables for a firm’s financial status. Our primary proxy variable for financial status is creditworthiness score. We estimate a firm’s creditworthiness score using a multivariate discriminant function as in Cleary99. Firms with low creditworthiness scores (i.e., low credit-worthy firms) are considered financially constrained. In addition, we use two more proxies for financial status: firm size and dividend payout ratio. In the literature on financial constraints, it is a common practice to assume that small firms are financially constrained, compared to large firms [See, for example, Almeida and Campello (2007), Cleary (2006), Allayannis and Mozumdar (2004), Kadapakkam, Kumar and Riddick (1998)].1 Also, in prior studies, low-dividend-payout firms are considered financially constrained on the grounds that firms that pay out less of its income as dividends may do so because they are financially constrained.2 Our sample covers thirty-five countries over the 1998-2004 period. In a given year for each country, we rank sample firms by their financial status measured by creditworthiness scores, firm size, or dividend payout ratio. Then we use the bottom and top one-thirds of firms for analysis. The bottom one-third of firms is viewed as financially constrained, while the top one-third as financially unconstrained. The next step is to estimate investment-cash flow sensitivities for financially constrained and unconstrained firms. If investment-cash flow 1 Several other studies also adopt the view that small firms face restricted access to external financial markets. For example, Gertler and Gilchrist (1994) that small firms are likely to face larger barriers to external financing, because fixed costs associated with issuing publicly-traded bonds are more important for small firms. Beck, Demirguc-Kunt and Maksimovic (2004) argue that, in countries without welldeveloped financial markets, small firms have restricted access to external financing relative to large firms. 2 FHP88 point out that “if the cost of disadvantage of external finance is large, it should have the greatest effect on firms that retain most of its income.” 3 sensitivity reflects financial constraints, we anticipate that financially constrained firms will display high investment-cash flow sensitivities, as compared to financially unconstrained firms. Our empirical investigation shows that, in the majority of the sample countries, financially constrained firms do not display high investment-cash flow sensitivities, as compared to financially unconstrained firms. This result holds across different methods of identifying financially constrained firms. To elaborate, in many of the sample countries, lowcreditworthy, small-sized and low-dividend-paying firms do not display greater investment-cash flow sensitivities than do high-creditworthy, large-sized and high-dividend-paying firms, respectively. Thus, our international evidence is consistent with the prior U.S. studies of KZ97 and Cleary99, which reject the view that high investment-cash flow sensitivities signify financial constraints.3 We explore reasons why financial constrained firms do not display high investmentcash flow sensitivities in many countries. Our primary explanation is based on the relation between financial constraints and external financing. If high costs of external financing are a key reason for financial constraints, then the sensitivities of financially constrained firms’ investments to external financing will be low because their reliance on external financing will be low. However, our data show that, in the majority of our sample countries, the investments of financially constrained firms (or those classified as such) display higher sensitivities to external funds than to internal funds. Moreover, in many countries, financially constrained firms use substantial amounts of external funds. These observations suggest that those firms that are identified as financially constrained in conventional classification schemes may not, in fact, be financially constrained, because they do not appear to have restricted access to external financing. We also investigate whether the lack of strong investment-cash flow sensitivities of financially constrained firms is due to inclusion of negative cash-flow firms in our analysis. Allayannis and Mozumdar (2004), Cleary, Povel and Raith (2005) and Hovakimian (2003) argue that the investments of negative or low cash-flow firms may be insensitive, or even negatively sensitive, to internal funds. Assuming that constrained firms experience a relatively high occurrence of negative-cash flow years, the presence of negative cash-flow observations in the dataset may result in the lack of significant investment-cash flow sensitivities for constrained firms. Indeed, we find that, across countries, investment-cash flow sensitivity is insignificant or even negative for firms with relatively low cash flows. However, we also find that, in many countries, constrained firms do not display significantly greater investment-cash 3 It is worthwhile to note that some of our results deviate from these U.S. studies. For example, in the majority of our sample countries, investment-cash flow sensitivity is not high for high creditworthy firms and low for low creditworthy firms. Thus, a positive relationship between investment-cash flow sensitivity and creditworthiness—as reported by KZ97 and Cleary99—is not a worldwide norm. 4 flow sensitivities than unconstrained firms, even after removal of negative-cash flow observations. Thus, while there is international evidence that investment-cash flow sensitivities vary with a firm’s ability to generate sufficient internal funds, the lack of significant investmentcash flow sensitivities for constrained firms is not necessarily due to inclusion of negative cashflow firms in the dataset. Our contribution to the financial constraint literature can be described as follows. First, using comprehensive international data, we confirm a couple of major findings of prior U.S studies. In many countries, the investments of financially constrained firms are not highly sensitive to internal funds, which is consistent with KZ97 and Cleary99. In addition, almost invariably across countries, investment-cash flow sensitivities are affected by the firm’s ability to generate positive internal funds, which corroborates the evidence of Allayannis and Mozumdar (2004), Cleary, Povel and Raith (2005) and Hovakimian (2003). Second and more importantly, unlike prior studies, we examine the relation between financial constraints and external financing. This analysis provides us with additional insight into the nature of financially constrained firms. In many countries, constrained firms’ investments are relatively more sensitive to external financing than to internal financing, probably because those firms use substantial amounts of external funds. Thus, our international evidence runs counter to the conventional view that financially constrained firms have restricted access to external financing. The current paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents our methodology and data. Section 3 conducts empirical analyses and discusses results. Section 4 concludes the paper. 2. Research design 2.1. Methodology In analyzing the relation between investment-cash flow sensitivity and financial constraints, we estimate the standard investment regression model used by key prior studies such as FHP88, KZ97, and Cleary99. ( I / K ) it = β M / B ( M / B ) it + β CF / K (CF / K ) it + u it (1) where subscripts i and t denote firm and year, respectively; I represents investment in plant and equipment; K is the beginning-of-the-year book value for net property, plant and equipment; M/B represents the beginning-of-the year equity market-to-book ratio; CF represents cash flow as measured by net income plus depreciation plus the change in deferred taxes; and uit is an error term. This regression model is estimated using ordinary least squares with fixed firm and 5 year effects. In this regression model, investment-cash flow sensitivity is estimated by the coefficient for CF/K, i.e. β CF / K . In this study, our focus is to examine whether financially constrained firms display relatively high investment-cash flow sensitivities, compared to financially unconstrained firms. In identifying financially constrained and unconstrained firms, we use three proxy variables for financial status: creditworthiness score, firm size and dividend payout ratio. Our primary proxy for financial status is creditworthiness score (ZC), which we estimate using a linear discriminant function à la Cleary99: Z C = β1 ⋅ Current + β 2 ⋅ FCCov + β 3 ⋅ Slack / K + β 4 ⋅ NIM + β 5 ⋅ SGR + β 6 ⋅ Debt (2) where Current is the current ratio; FCCov is fixed the charge coverage; Slack/K is the ratio of slack to net fixed assets; NIM is the net income margin; and SGR is one-year sales growth rate; and Debt is the debt ratio. Current and Slack/K are proxy variables for liquidity; FCCov and Debt are proxy variables for leverage; NIM is a proxy variable for profitability; and SGR is a proxy variable for growth. Definitions of these variables are provided in the Appendix. Prior to estimating the linear discriminant function, we divide the entire firm-years in each country into three groups, depending on whether the firm increases, decreases, or leaves unchanged dividends per share during a given year. We choose two groups of firm-years: (i) firm-years in which firms increase dividends and (ii) firm-years in which firms reduce dividends. Then we use the above linear discriminant function to estimate the creditworthiness score for each firm-year.4 We treat firm-years with low creditworthiness scores as financially constrained. In addition to creditworthiness score, we use firm size and dividend payout ratio as alternate proxies for financial status. When we use firm size as a proxy for financial status, the underlying assumption is that small firms face restricted access to external financing and thus are financially constrained. We use total assets as a measure of firm size, because assets can be used as collateral and thus are a better indicator of a firm’s ability to raise external capital than market capitalization or net sales. When we use dividend payout ratio as a proxy for financial status, we treat low dividend paying firms as financially constrained. Our measure of dividend payout ratio is the amount of cash dividends divided by operating income. In constructing our dataset of financially constrained and unconstrained firms, we execute the following procedure. In each year for each country, we rank firms based on a given proxy and take the top and bottom one-thirds of firms. For each country, financially constrained 4 In this scheme, the key is the probability that a firm will increase or decrease dividends in the following year. In essence, firms that are likely to decrease (increase) dividends in the following year are deemed financially constrained (unconstrained) firms. 6 (unconstrained) firms are a collection of firm-year observations that belong to the bottom (top) one-third in a given year in the distribution of a given proxy. Once the dataset of financially constrained and unconstrained firms is constructed, we estimate investment-cash flow sensitivities for both groups of firms on the basis of the regression model (Equation (1)). Our study goes beyond testing whether financially constrained firms display relatively high investment-cash flow sensitivities, as compared to financially unconstrained firms. We also examine the extent to which the investments of financially constrained firms are sensitive to external funds. For this analysis, we estimate the following regression model for financially constrained firms: ( I / K ) it = β M / B ( M / B ) it + β CF / K (CF / K ) it + β EXT / K ( EXT / K ) it + u it (3) Our measure of external financing is EXT/K, i.e., the amount of external financing (EXT) divided by the beginning-of-the-year book value of net fixed assets (K). EXT is defined as the sum of the proceeds from equity issues and long-term borrowings during a given year. The purpose of this regression analysis is to assess the prediction that high costs of external financing cause firms to be financially constrained. If high costs of external financing are a key driver for financial constraints, then financially constrained firms’ use of external funds will be low and thus their investments’ sensitivities to external funds, i.e., β CF / K , will be low, relative to their sensitivities to internal funds, i.e., β EXT / K .5 2.2. Data and variables Our data comprise firms from thirty-five countries. In constructing our dataset, we use the Worldscope database. We choose a seven-year period from 1998 through 2004.6 Our data construction process begins with all available firms in the database during the period and then removes firms in the financial services industry, foreign firms and ADRs. Our study requires a number of firm-level variables in order to estimate the regression model (Equation (1)) and the linear discriminant function (Equation (2)). The Appendix 5 Using both internal and external financings as explanatory variables in the same regression model may be problematic because of a potential correlation between the two forms of financing. (Across countries, the correlation between internal and external financings (CF/K and EXT/K) ranges from −0.24 to 0.45.) To get around this problem, we also estimate investments’ sensitivity to one form of financing without the other form in the same regression, i.e., (I/K)it=β M/B (M/B) it+β CF/K (CF/K) it+ u it and (I/K)it=β M/B (M/B) it+β EXT/K (EXT/K) it+ u iti before comparison of β CF/K and β EXT/K. Results remain qualitatively unchanged. 6 Cleary99, a key U.S. study, also examines a seven-year period from 1988 through 1994. Note that, due to backfilling in the Worldscope database, the number of usable firm-year observations tends to decrease as we move backward in time. 7 provides definitions of these firm-level variables. We drop a firm-year observation if it has a missing value in any of these variables. While we desire to include as many countries as possible in our analysis, we drop countries that do not have a sufficient number of usable firmyear observations for analysis. In the end, our final dataset includes thirty-five countries.7 Table 1 reports the means of key financial ratios for the sample firm-year observations in each country. In order to deal with extreme observations, we winsorize our data according to the rules similar to those used by Cleary998: (i) assign a value of 100 percent (−100 percent) if SGR is greater (less) than 100 percent (−100 percent); (ii) assign a value of 2 (−2) if I/K is greater (less) than 2 (−2); (iii) assign a value of 5 (−5) if CF/K is greater (less) than 5 (−5); (iv) assign a value of 5 (−5) if EXT/K is greater (less) than 5 (−5); (v) assign a value of 10 (-10) if M/B is greater (less) than 10 (-10); (vi) assign a value of 10 if Current is greater than 10; (vii) assign a value of +100 percent (−100 percent) if NIM is greater (less) than 100 percent (−100 percent); and (viii) assign a value of 100 (−0.1) if FCCov is greater (less) than 100 (0). 3. Empirical results 3.1. Investment’s sensitivity to internal financing The first step in our empirical investigation is to test whether financially constrained firms display relatively high investment-cash flow sensitivities. To do so, we estimate the regression model given in Equation (1). As described above, we use three different methods of identifying financially constrained firms: that is, by: (i) creditworthiness score, (ii) firm size, and (iii) payout ratio. Table 2 reports regression results for constrained and unconstrained firms that are identified by creditworthiness score for each of the thirty-five countries in the dataset. Financially constrained (unconstrained) firms are firm-years in which creditworthiness scores belong to the bottom (top) one-third of distribution in a given year over the 1998−2004 period. Our focus here is on the magnitude and significance of the coefficient for cash flow (CF/K)— i.e., β CF / K —which represents investment-cash flow sensitivity. In particular, we want to determine whether the estimated coefficient for cash flow for constrained firms is greater than 7 Note that our final dataset includes every firm-year observation that has a valid value for each of the aforementioned variables. Alternately, we also construct our dataset by including only those firms that have a usable firm-year observation in every year during our sample period 1989-2004. We find that results remain qualitatively unchanged when using this alternate dataset. 8 Compared to Cleary99, we use two more winsorization rules. The first is the one on external funds/next fixed assets (EXT/K). (Cleary99 does not examine external funds.) The second is the one that imposes a value of –10 for a market-to-book ratio (M/B) that is less than –10. This rule on highly negative marketto-book values is necessary because our international data contain relatively many firms with highly negative market-to-book values. We find, however, that our key results remain qualitatively unchanged without this additional winsorization rule on highly negative market-to-book firms. 8 that for unconstrained firms. To aid in the analysis, the table presents t-statistics for the difference in investment-cash flow sensitivities between constrained and unconstrained firms.9 The results in Table 2 suggest that, in more than half the countries, the investment-cash flow sensitivity for constrained firms is lower than that estimated for unconstrained firms. For example, in the U.S., the β CF / K coefficient for constrained firms, −0.066, is less than that estimated for unconstrained firms, 0.085. In many countries, the evidence that financially constrained firms display relatively high investment-cash flow sensitivities is weak. According to the t-statistics, the difference in investment-cash flow sensitivities between constrained and unconstrained firms—i.e., βCFFC−βCFNFC—is positive and statistically significant in only twelve out of the thirty-five countries under study. Thus, our international data do not provide strong support for the hypothesis that investment-cash flow sensitivities reflect financial constraints. Table 3 reports regression results for constrained and unconstrained firms that are identified by firm size. For each country, financially constrained (unconstrained) firms are firmyears in which firm size belongs to the bottom (top) one-third of distribution in a given year over the sample period. These regressions based on this alternative identification method present similar results to those above. For example, in as many as twenty-four out of thirty-five countries, the coefficient for cash flow for constrained firms is lower than that for constrained firms. According to the t-statistics, there are only six countries in which the investment-cash flow sensitivity for constrained firms is significantly greater than that for unconstrained firms. Thus, across countries, the evidence that small firms—that are deemed financially constrained—display relatively high investment-cash flow sensitivities is rather weak. Finally, Table 4 reports regression results for constrained and unconstrained firms as identified by payout ratio. For each country, financially constrained (unconstrained) firms are firm-years in which payout ratio belongs to the bottom (top) one-third of distribution in a given year over the sample period. Again, in many countries, evidence does not suggest that constrained firms display relatively high investment-cash flow sensitivities. In as many as eighteen out of thirty-five countries, the investment-cash flow sensitivity for constrained firms is lower than that estimated for unconstrained firms. According to the t-statistic, there are only six countries in which constrained firms display significantly greater investment-cash flow sensitivities than unconstrained firms. In summary, our evidence is in conflict with what we would expect if investment-cash 9 This t-statistic is calculated as (β1−β2)/(s12− s22)1/2, where β1 and β2 are coefficient estimates for cash flows of constrained and unconstrained firms, respectively, and s1 and s2 are corresponding standard errors. Allayannis and Mozumdar (2004) use the same t-statistic. We use additional techniques to assess the significance of the difference in investment-cash flow sensitivities between constrained and unconstrained groups. For example, we pool observations from both constrained and unconstrained groups in the same regression that uses a group dummy variable as well as an interaction variable (cash flow interacted with the group dummy). Results remain qualitatively unchanged. 9 flow sensitivity is a measure of financial constraints. In many countries, constrained firms do not display high investment-cash flow sensitivities, as compared to unconstrained firms. This observation holds across different methods of identifying financially constrained firms. Overall, our international investigation presents evidence that is consistent with prior U.S. studies, such as KZ97 and Cleary99. 3.2. Investment’s sensitivity to external financing In this section, we investigate the question of whether the investments of financially constrained firms are more sensitive to internal funds than to external funds. The purpose of this investigation is to explore the reason for the lack of high investment-cash flow sensitivities of financially constrained firms. Motivation for this investigation comes from the standard view in the financial constraint literature. According to the standard view, high costs of external financing are a key driver for financial constraints [see, for example, FHP88 and KZ97]. Financially constrained firms are those that face high costs of external financing. Thus, if this standard view holds true, use of external funds by constrained firms will be small and, further, the sensitivity of constrained firms’ investments to external funds will be low, relative to their sensitivities to internal funds. We estimate the regression model (Equation (3)) that estimates the sensitivities of investments to internal and external financing— β CF / K and β EXT / K , respectively. Market-tobook ratio (M/B) is used as a control variable. The standard view in the financial constraint literature predicts that the investments of constrained firms will be more sensitive to internal financing than to external financing—that is, β CF / K > β EXT / K . For each of our sample countries, Table 5 reports the results of this regression analysis for both constrained and unconstrained firms that are identified by three different methods. The table also reports F-statistics that test the significance of the difference in the estimated coefficients for CF/K and EXT/K. Overall, there is little international evidence that the investments of financially constrained firms are more sensitive to internal funds than to external funds. For example, in Panel A for which low-creditworthy firms are identified as financially constrained, F statistics indicate that there are only six countries—Austria, China, France, New Zealand, Singapore and Spain—in which the investments of constrained firms are significantly more sensitive to internal financing than to external financing. In the majority of countries, the sensitivity of constrained firms’ investments to internal financing is either lower, or not significantly greater than their sensitivity to external financing. Results in Panels B and C tell a similar story. In Panel B, for which small firms are identified as financially constrained, there are only three countries—Austria, Portugal, and 10 Taiwan—in which the coefficient for internal financing ( β CF / K ) is significantly greater than the coefficient for external financing ( β EXT / K ) for constrained firms. In Panel C, for which low payout firms are identified as financially constrained, there are several countries—eleven countries—in which the investments of constrained firms display a significantly greater sensitivity to internal financing than to external financing. Still, in the majority of countries, the sensitivity of constrained firms’ investments to internal financing is either lower or not significantly greater than their sensitivity to external financing. In sum, across different methods of identifying constrained firms, our results do not support the prediction that the investments of constrained firms will display greater sensitivities to internal financing than to external financing. Then why are the investments of constrained firms not more sensitive to internal funds than to external funds in many countries? According to the regression results presented in Table 5, the sensitivity of constrained firms’ investments to external funds—as measured by β EXT / K — is positive and statistically significant in most of the sample countries across different methods of identifying constrained firms. Thus, there is a possibility that constrained firms may rely on external financing to a considerable extent. To evaluate this possibility, we compare the amount of external financings used by constrained and unconstrained firms across sample countries. Table 6 reports the mean and median values of external financing (EXT/K) along with those of investments (I/K) and internal financings (CF/K) for constrained and unconstrained firms across three different identification methods. Our interest is to evaluate whether the amount of external financing by constrained firms is small, as compared to the corresponding amount of external financing by unconstrained firms. The table shows that, in relatively many countries, the mean and median values of external financing for constrained firms are greater than the corresponding values for unconstrained firms. For example, in Panel A, for which constrained firms are identified on the basis of creditworthiness score, there are eighteen (sixteen) countries—including the U.S.—in which the mean (median) value of external financing for constrained firms is greater than the corresponding value for unconstrained firms. Similarly, in Panel B, for which constrained firms are identified on the basis of firm size, there are twelve (eight) countries—including the U.S.—in which the mean (median) value of external financing for constrained firms is greater than the corresponding value for unconstrained firms. Finally, this pattern—that constrained firms use relatively large amounts of external financing— is more pronounced in Panel C for which low-payout firms are identified as constrained. In as many as thirty-one (twenty-nine) out of thirty-five countries, the mean (median) of external financing for constrained firms is greater than the corresponding value for unconstrained firms. Thus, the data suggest that, in many countries, firms identified as financially constrained use substantial amounts of external financing. It appears that, in many countries, 11 constrained firms rely more on external financing than do unconstrained firms. This evidence is consistent with the observation that the sensitivity of constrained firms’ investments to external funds is positive and statistically significant in many countries. However, this evidence is at odds with the view that financially constrained firms face restricted access to external financing. In summary, our investigation into the sensitivity of investments to external financing provides insight into the nature of financially constrained firms. In many countries, the investments of constrained firms are more sensitive to external financing than to internal financing. Further, in many countries, constrained firms use substantial amounts of external financing. This evidence runs counter to the standard view in the literature that constrained firms have restricted access to external financing as a result of high costs of external financing. Our evidence suggests that the sensitivity of constrained firms’ investments to internal financing may not be high because those firms use substantial amounts of external financing. 3.3. Impact of negative cash-flow firms on investment-cash flow sensitivities In this section, we investigate another potential reason for the lack of strong investment-cash flow sensitivities of constrained firms. According to Allayannis and Mozumdar (2004), a lack of strong investment-cash flow sensitivities of constrained firms may be due to inclusion of negative cash-flow firms in the analysis. They argue that the investments of negative cash-flow firms may be insensitive or even negatively sensitive to internal funds. Assuming that constrained firms experience a relatively high occurrence of negative-cash flow years, the presence of negative cash-flow observations in the dataset may result in a lack of significant investment-cash flow sensitivities for constrained firms. Cleary, Povel and Raith (2005) and Hovakimian (2003) also propose that firms with negative or low cash flows may display insignificant or negative investment-cash flow sensitivities. We investigate whether negative or low cash-flow observations influence our inference on the difference in investment-cash flow sensitivities between constrained and unconstrained firms using our international data. For this investigation, we conduct two tests. The first test examines whether investment-cash flow sensitivities vary with a firm’s ability to generate sufficient internal funds. Specifically, we examine whether low-cash-flow firms display significantly lower investment-cash flow sensitivities than do high-cash-flow firms. The second test examines whether constrained firms display greater investment-cash flow sensitivities than unconstrained firms after removing negative cash-flow observations from the dataset. If inclusion of negative cash-flow observations in the dataset is a major reason for the lack of strong investment-cash flow sensitivities for constrained firms, then their investment-cash flow sensitivities will be more positive and significant after removal of negative cash-flow observations, and thus greater than the investment-cash flow sensitivities of unconstrained firms. 12 Table 7 reports the results of regression analysis that estimates investment-cash flow sensitivities for low-cash-flow and high-cash-flow firms. For each country, low-cash-flow (high-cash-flow) firms are firm-years in which the amount of cash flow (CF/K) belongs to the bottom (top) one-third of distribution in a given year over the sample period. The accompanying t-statistics test the statistical significance of the difference in investment-cash flow sensitivities between low-cash-flow and high-cash-flow firms. A key observation from the table is that, in the majority of countries, investment-cash flow sensitivity ( β CF / K ) is negative for low-cash-flow firms. There are twenty-seven countries in which the β CF / K coefficient is negative. This negative investment-cash flow sensitivity for low-cash-flow firms suggests that these firms continue to invest or make at least minimum investments despite cash-flow shortfalls. In contrast, the table shows that high-cash-flow firms display positive investment-cash flow sensitivities almost invariably across countries. There is only one exception: Austria. A related observation is that, in the majority of countries, highcash-flow firms display significantly greater investment-cash flow sensitivities than low-cashflow firms. The t-statistics on the table show that, in as many as thirty out of thirty-five countries, the β CF / K coefficient for low-cash-flow firms is significantly lower than that estimated for high-cash-flow firms. Thus, our evidence suggests that firms may display different levels investment-cash flow sensitivities, depending on the availability of internal funds. In particular, in the majority of countries, low-cash-flow firms display negative investment-cash flow sensitivities. This finding is consistent with Allayannis and Mozumdar (2004), Cleary, Povel and Raith (2005) and Hovakimian (2003). Our next test examines whether the presence of negative cash-flow observations in the analysis may be a reason that constrained firms do not display greater investment-cash flow sensitivities than unconstrained firms. To examine this question, we compare investment-cash flow sensitivities for constrained and unconstrained firms, after removing negative cash-flow observations. Table 8 reports the results of the regression analysis that estimates investment-cash flow sensitivities for three different methods of identifying constrained firms, after removing negative cash-flow observations. The table shows that, in many countries, the evidence that constrained firms display relatively high investment-cash flow sensitivities is still weak. In Panel A, for which low-creditworthy firms are identified as constrained, there are only ten countries in which the β CF / K coefficient for constrained firms is significantly greater than for unconstrained firms according to the t-statistics. In many countries—twelve—the β CF / K coefficient for constrained firms is significantly lower than that for unconstrained firms, even after removal of negative cash-flow observations. 13 Similar results are found in Panels B and C. In Panel B for which small firms are identified as constrained, there are less than half the countries—ten—in which the β CF / K coefficient for constrained firms is significantly greater than for unconstrained firms. In Panel C, for which low payout firms are identified as constrained, there are eleven countries—in which constrained firms display significantly greater investment-cash flow sensitivities than unconstrained firms. Overall, across different methods of identifying constrained firms, our earlier finding that constrained firms do not display significantly greater investment-cash flow sensitivities than unconstrained firms remains unchanged even after removal of negative-cash flow observations. In summary, our investigation shows evidence that, across countries, investment-cash flow sensitivities are affected by a firm’s ability to generate sufficient internal funds. Firms tend to display low or even negative investment-cash flow sensitivities if internal funds are negative or low. These results are consistent with Allayannis and Mozumdar (2004), Cleary, Povel and Raith (2005), and Hovakimian (2003). On the other hand, there is little international evidence to suggest that the lack of strong investment-cash flow sensitivities for constrained firms is due to inclusion of negative cash-flow observations in the dataset. In many countries, constrained firms do not display greater investment-cash flow sensitivities than unconstrained firms, even after removal of negative cash-flow observations. 4. Concluding remarks Our analysis of comprehensive international data yields several important findings on the relation between investments and financing. First, we find that, in many countries, the investments of financially constrained firms are not highly sensitive to internal funds, as compared to the investments of financially unconstrained firms. This finding is consistent with the view of prior U.S. studies, such as KZ97 and Cleary99, that investment-cash flow sensitivities do not reflect financial constraints. Second, we find that, in many countries, the investments of financially constrained firms are more sensitive to external funds than to internal financing, probably because those firms use substantial amounts of external funds. Overall, financially constrained firms (or those classified as such) do not appear to face restricted access to external financing.10 Our evidence suggests that the sensitivity of constrained firms’ investments to internal financing may not be high because those firms use substantial amounts of external financing. 10 The nature of our sample firms suggests that firms classified as financially constrained are not truly constrained and may raise external capital without incurring high costs. Firms examined in our study—as well as those examined in prior U.S. studiesare listed on major stock exchanges in the world. Given that these firms satisfy the rigorous requirements expected of listed companies, external financing may not be prohibitively expensive for such firms. 14 Third, there is strong evidence that, across countries, investment-cash flow sensitivities vary with a firm’s ability to generate sufficient internal funds. Our evidence supports the prediction of Allayannis and Mozumdar (2004), Cleary, Povel and Raith (2005, and Hovakimian (2003) that investments of negative or low cash-flow firms may be insensitive or negatively sensitive to internal funds. However, in many countries, constrained firms do not display relatively high investment-cash flow sensitivities, even after removal of negative-cash flow observations. 15 References Almeida, H., M. Campello, 2007. Financial constraints, asset tangibility, and corporate investment. 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Journal of Banking and Finance 30, 1559-1580. Cleary, S., Povel, P., Raith, M., 2005. The U-shaped investment curve: theory and evidence. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, forthcoming. Erickson, T. and T. Whited, 2000. Measurement error and the relationship between investment and Q. Journal of Political Economy 108, 1027-1057. Fazzari, S., R. Hubbard, B. Petersen, 1988. Financing constraints and corporate investment. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1, 141-195. 16 Gertler, M., S. Gilchrist, 1994. Monetary policy, business cycles, and behavior of small manufacturing firms. Quarterly Journal of Economics 109, 309-340. Gomes, J., 2001. Financing investment. American Economic Review 91, 1263-1285. Hoshi T., A. Kashyap, D. Scharfstein, 1991. Corporate structure liquidity and investment: evidence from japanese panel data. Quarterly Journal of Economics 106, 33-60. Hovakimian, G., 2003. The determinants of investment cash flow sensitivity. 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American Economic Review 88, 559-586. 17 Appendix: Description of Variables Cash flow (CF) net income + depreciation and/or amortization expense + change in deferred taxes Investment (I) net capital expenditures Market-to-book (M/B) market value of common equity / book value of common equity External financing (EXT) equity issue + long-term borrowing Net fixed assets (K) net property, plant and equipment Dividend payout ratio (PAYR) cash dividends paid / operating income Current ratio (Current) current assets / current liabilities Debt ratio (Debt) (current portion of long-term debt + long-term debt) / total assets Fixed charge coverage ratio (FCCov) earnings before interest and taxes / (interest expense + preferred dividend payments × (1 / (1 – tax rate) Net income net income before extraordinary operations ± extraordinary items and discontinued operations Net income margin (NIM) net income / net sales * 100 Net sales growth (SGR) (net salest – net salest-1) / net salest-1 Slack (Slack) Cash + short-term investments + (0.50 × inventory) + (0.70 × account receivable) – short term loans US Dollar Total Assets (USDTA) Total assets expressed in U.S. dollar values using the end-of-the-year exchange rate 18 Table 1 Means of selected financial ratios for sample countries The table reports the means of selected financial ratios for our sample of firm-year observations in each country over 1998-2004. US dollar total assets (USDTA) are presented in millions of U.S. dollars. Country nobs I/K M/B CF/K EXT/K USDTA CURRENT DEBT FCCOV NIM SGR SLACK/K Argentina Australia Austria Brazil Canada Chile China Denmark Finland France Germany Greece HongKong India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Netherlands NewZealand Norway Philippines Portugal Singapore SouthAfrica 137 1895 143 432 1604 355 1257 376 424 1729 1473 61 2495 1318 954 206 666 6432 1021 2681 381 582 207 353 397 116 1661 607 0.141 0.307 0.258 0.207 0.286 0.153 0.225 0.256 0.372 0.431 0.337 0.373 0.201 0.207 0.162 0.232 0.273 0.141 0.157 0.127 0.123 0.293 0.193 0.381 0.127 0.182 0.190 0.339 1.193 2.180 1.379 1.104 2.221 1.278 2.896 2.143 2.359 2.450 2.328 3.258 1.368 2.066 1.085 2.603 2.314 1.525 0.670 1.252 1.203 3.218 2.148 2.215 0.813 2.457 1.495 2.076 0.327 0.321 0.216 0.421 0.202 0.267 0.301 0.275 0.364 0.712 0.402 0.919 0.161 0.387 0.231 0.523 0.482 0.259 0.141 0.179 0.197 0.589 0.484 0.432 0.202 0.111 0.199 0.826 0.187 1.011 0.203 0.358 0.614 0.443 0.902 0.250 0.372 0.727 0.444 0.361 0.632 0.215 0.203 0.602 0.405 0.195 0.330 0.230 0.233 0.512 0.445 0.590 0.197 1.208 0.290 0.295 1224 598 1473 2318 1396 816 448 470 1813 3535 4172 754 672 581 284 1098 4346 3100 672 283 1749 3621 287 1417 356 1501 400 830 1.583 1.876 1.692 1.503 2.039 2.079 1.435 1.990 2.030 1.543 2.149 1.526 2.106 1.592 1.662 1.709 1.660 1.679 1.709 1.904 2.003 1.514 1.879 1.970 1.499 1.038 1.823 1.650 0.229 0.186 0.172 0.198 0.219 0.176 0.114 0.167 0.178 0.174 0.131 0.174 0.156 0.220 0.310 0.234 0.156 0.156 0.243 0.148 0.202 0.171 0.246 0.247 0.189 0.229 0.157 0.116 6.329 13.247 10.782 3.021 10.954 13.298 11.976 11.783 14.432 12.164 11.543 16.277 16.178 16.579 9.867 15.164 10.358 23.390 7.159 15.118 10.089 12.209 14.934 11.620 4.592 4.666 16.316 15.782 -5.314 -6.908 2.805 4.492 -4.269 10.330 4.004 1.867 1.969 0.799 -3.940 5.890 -5.368 5.689 -1.741 1.864 -0.215 1.103 -3.870 -2.367 1.824 2.343 7.466 0.386 -9.636 4.858 -2.119 6.561 16.100 15.316 9.062 19.689 17.197 11.077 18.146 7.179 11.108 10.485 6.606 19.625 6.012 12.413 16.873 14.349 8.637 2.774 5.199 7.164 11.872 6.775 9.306 12.425 8.381 11.153 8.099 16.702 1.487 4.578 1.880 6.117 2.477 0.703 2.944 7.482 5.232 6.796 5.784 1.863 5.323 1.198 2.937 2.342 6.431 4.053 2.434 2.702 1.021 3.347 1.947 5.682 11.778 1.303 2.953 5.675 19 Country nobs I/K M/B CF/K EXT/K USDTA CURRENT DEBT FCCOV NIM SGR SLACK/K Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey UK US 179 619 580 2026 1372 195 5233 18758 0.255 0.327 0.214 0.203 0.142 0.586 0.306 0.319 2.630 3.066 2.525 1.703 1.142 3.375 2.533 2.423 0.528 0.246 0.350 0.361 0.293 0.934 0.269 0.135 0.229 0.775 0.327 0.256 0.210 0.399 0.763 1.061 2802 1603 2942 686 229 1158 1316 2171 1.505 2.181 2.226 1.831 1.809 1.677 1.631 2.378 0.137 0.146 0.187 0.145 0.227 0.114 0.150 0.269 15.191 13.654 11.983 17.082 19.276 10.549 13.837 12.211 7.859 -4.765 1.724 1.371 1.973 3.578 -6.702 -10.438 13.520 12.718 7.163 14.990 9.954 53.814 13.593 12.570 2.280 7.612 2.540 2.556 1.608 2.176 10.178 7.468 20 Table 2 Investment-cash flow sensitivity for financially constrained firms identified by creditworthiness The table reports the results of the regression analysis (equation (1)) for financially constrained and unconstrained firms for each country over the period 1998-2004. The regression model is: ( I / K ) it = β M / B ( M / B ) it + β CF / K (CF / K ) it + uit , where investment-cash flow sensitivity is the coefficient estimate for cash flows (CF/K). ‘FC’ and ‘NFC’ indicate financially constrained and unconstrained firms, respectively. In each country, financially constrained (unconstrained) firms are those firm-years in which creditworthiness score belongs to the top (bottom) one-third of the distribution in a given year. The regression model is estimated using fixed firm and year effects. The number of firmyear observations used for this regression may differ between constrained and unconstrained groups because firms that have only one valid firm-year are removed before we run the regression for each group. The numbers in parentheses are OLS t values. The numbers in square brackets are t(β CFFC −βCFNFC), i.e., t-statistic for the difference in the coefficient estimates for CF/K between constrained and unconstrained firms. *, ** and *** indicate two-tailed significance at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels, respectively. Country Group M/B Argentina FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat 0.125 0.019 (0.959) (1.276) 0.031 0.011 (3.674) (1.104) Australia Austria Brazil Canada Chile China Denmark Finland France Germany R2 nobs 0.753 0.941 35 36 0.828 0.668 557 552 0.968 0.930 41 39 0.867 0.687 121 131 0.685 0.832 492 465 0.582 0.835 101 105 0.723 0.764 361 358 * 0.694 0.780 107 116 *** 0.841 0.777 115 114 0.845 0.812 483 498 0.800 0.723 419 415 CF/K 0.160 -0.157 *** 0.070 0.014 0.068 0.094 (1.458) (1.768) 0.057 0.002 (4.353) (0.128) *** 0.039 0.024 (4.796) (1.919) *** * -0.051 0.190 0.014 0.075 (0.354) (1.787) * -0.387 0.824 0.003 0.013 (0.441) (1.619) 0.021 0.045 (0.760) (2.701) *** 0.036 0.040 0.064 0.072 (2.979) (2.480) *** ** 0.205 0.023 -0.004 0.015 (-0.317) (1.763) * 0.119 0.116 0.034 0.029 (3.094) (3.530) *** *** 0.097 0.023 * 0.165 0.561 0.020 0.326 0.074 0.067 21 (0.817) (-2.847) [1.555] (3.343) (1.167) [2.300] (8.582) (2.875) [-2.018] (1.192) (4.475) [-4.083] (-2.638) (7.080) [-7.285] (-1.879) (10.503) [-5.498] (2.871) (3.258) [0.234] (1.922) (1.269) [-0.118] (4.026) (0.589) [2.827] (5.415) (6.252) [0.124] (4.435) (1.466) [2.784] ** * *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** * *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Country Group M/B Greece FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC 0.008 0.011 (2.473) (3.016) -0.008 -0.004 (-1.208) (-0.415) 0.021 0.011 (1.940) (1.522) 0.004 0.004 (0.573) (0.529) 0.043 0.073 0.012 -0.016 (0.926) (-0.752) 0.108 0.257 -0.024 -0.019 (-1.779) (-0.838) * 0.034 0.128 0.004 0.027 (2.623) (6.659) *** *** -0.036 0.017 0.031 -0.036 (2.375) (-2.524) ** ** 0.048 0.376 -0.001 0.008 (-0.247) (0.773) 0.011 0.030 (1.302) (1.977) 0.015 0.005 (1.484) (0.516) -0.049 0.088 (-2.363) (2.359) 0.070 -0.009 (1.416) (-0.420) 0.014 0.036 (1.914) (1.245) 0.020 -0.057 (0.327) (-1.550) 0.008 0.017 (0.943) (1.992) -0.003 0.006 (-0.341) (0.347) 0.149 0.154 -0.012 (-0.398) 0.672 HongKong India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Netherlands NewZealand Norway Philippines Portugal Singapore SouthAfrica Spain R2 nobs *** *** *** *** *** 0.680 0.781 1571 1542 0.635 0.666 711 709 *** *** *** ** *** 0.747 0.840 392 379 0.709 0.627 272 282 * *** * ** 0.746 0.914 62 65 0.675 0.762 202 202 0.736 0.766 1903 1969 0.608 0.841 304 288 0.556 0.639 811 788 0.703 0.941 107 111 0.757 0.833 171 178 0.913 0.836 56 65 0.822 0.834 97 94 0.688 0.676 119 120 0.866 0.862 31 34 0.809 0.679 498 492 *** *** *** 0.777 0.879 *** 0.907 179 168 347 51 CF/K ** *** -0.094 0.092 0.058 0.076 * -0.072 0.188 0.039 0.152 * -0.008 0.318 0.056 0.127 ** ** 0.644 -0.010 0.167 0.044 * -0.002 -0.013 0.340 0.152 ** 22 0.412 0.017 (-9.837) (7.837) [-12.290] (3.286) (6.361) [-0.850] (-3.593) (6.494) [-7.385] (2.599) (3.029) [-1.033] (1.837) (3.344) [-1.537] (1.997) (1.320) [-0.953] (-3.344) (1.729) [-3.640] (2.580) (12.540) [-9.313] (2.809) (7.115) [-4.437] (-0.315) (11.540) [-8.794] (2.233) (2.809) [-1.376] (6.238) (-0.316) [6.065] (3.010) (1.480) [1.958] (-0.138) (-0.181) [0.143] (1.061) (1.603) [0.564] (9.885) (0.988) [8.775] (5.200) (6.666) [-0.129] (3.565) *** * *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** * *** *** *** ** *** Country Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey UK US Group M/B NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat 0.036 CF/K (1.974) * *** *** 0.124 0.037 0.066 (3.327) (3.803) 0.137 -0.012 -0.000 0.012 (-0.040) (1.121) 0.035 0.012 (3.347) (0.867) -0.015 0.015 (-1.114) (3.535) 0.001 -0.021 (0.018) (-0.223) 0.008 0.011 (2.473) (3.016) ** *** -0.094 0.092 0.010 0.013 (6.315) (5.994) *** *** -0.066 0.085 0.100 0.088 *** *** 0.092 0.162 0.189 0.032 0.374 0.073 23 (0.913) [2.358] (4.367) (-0.460) [3.659] (4.941) (3.914) [0.404] (3.913) (5.291) [-1.803] (4.304) (1.447) [3.193] (2.720) (0.401) [1.317] (-9.837) (7.837) [-12.290] (-12.215) (16.961) [-20.480] ** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** * *** *** *** *** *** *** R2 nobs 0.830 58 0.874 0.764 178 187 0.849 0.838 149 165 0.741 0.750 553 567 0.750 0.608 416 432 0.902 0.784 42 44 0.680 0.781 1571 1542 0.635 0.794 5648 5605 Table 3 Investment-cash flow sensitivity for financially constrained firms identified by firm size The table reports the results of the regression analysis (equation (1)) for financially constrained and unconstrained firms for each country over the period 1998-2004. The regression model is: ( I / K ) it = β M / B ( M / B ) it + β CF / K (CF / K ) it + uit , where investment-cash flow sensitivity is the coefficient estimate for cash flows (CF/K). ‘FC’ and ‘NFC’ indicate financially constrained and unconstrained firms, respectively. In each country, financially constrained (unconstrained) firms are those firm-years in which firm size—measured by total assets—belongs to the top (bottom) one-third of the distribution in a given year. The regression model is estimated using fixed firm and year effects. The number of firm-year observations used for this regression may differ between constrained and unconstrained groups because firms that have only one valid firm-year are removed before we run the regression for each group. The numbers in parentheses are OLS t values. The numbers in square brackets are t(β CFFC −βCFNFC), i.e., t-statistic for the difference in the coefficient estimates for CF/K between constrained and unconstrained firms. *, ** and *** indicate two-tailed significance at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels, respectively. Country Argentina Australia Austria Brazil Canada Chile China Denmark Finland France Germany Group FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC M/B -0.019 -0.002 CF/K -0.039 0.223 (-1.205) (-0.095) 0.024 0.044 (2.392) (6.054) 0.026 0.010 (0.489) (0.322) 0.076 0.010 (3.024) (0.855) *** 0.026 0.088 0.031 0.034 (3.453) (8.144) *** *** -0.008 0.112 0.060 0.209 (1.454) (3.809) *** -0.342 0.389 0.008 -0.009 (1.459) (-0.661) 0.002 0.023 (0.122) (2.300) ** 0.145 0.000 0.092 0.039 (2.728) (1.811) *** * 0.048 0.392 0.032 0.029 (3.610) (4.659) *** *** 0.081 0.101 0.036 (4.194) *** 0.049 ** *** 0.025 0.129 0.147 0.339 0.105 0.243 24 (-1.319) (1.727) [-1.979] (2.140) (8.360) [-5.326] (4.548) (2.436) [-1.347] (1.742) (2.035) [-1.354] (-0.499) (6.980) [-5.214] (-2.447) (9.190) [-5.010] (5.891) (7.074) [-3.568] (5.224) (0.016) [4.949] (1.759) (3.127) [-2.678] (5.845) (6.484) [-0.970] (4.217) * ** ** *** *** *** ** * * ** * *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** * *** *** *** *** *** R2 0.737 0.654 nobs 42 48 0.622 0.791 701 744 0.943 0.895 47 50 0.859 0.768 145 143 0.672 0.847 621 638 0.671 0.728 115 119 0.647 0.767 413 415 0.779 0.872 124 128 0.739 0.768 138 142 0.791 0.860 588 603 0.754 477 Country Greece HongKong India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Netherlands NewZealand Norway Philippines Portugal Singapore SouthAfrica Group M/B NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC -0.004 (-0.859) 0.103 0.440 (0.892) (2.298) -0.001 0.015 R2 nobs 0.831 499 0.864 0.932 20 23 0.579 0.750 854 892 0.760 0.803 432 444 0.599 0.604 345 351 0.739 0.900 68 70 0.660 0.684 219 224 0.714 0.856 2143 2203 0.606 0.675 332 345 0.545 0.622 926 954 0.817 0.856 137 144 0.698 0.869 206 208 0.651 0.900 70 75 0.752 0.746 117 120 0.414 0.673 171 175 *** *** *** *** *** 0.926 0.920 35 36 0.650 0.713 556 574 *** *** 0.789 0.854 202 205 CF/K 0.175 * 0.244 -0.146 (-0.198) (2.448) ** 0.041 0.100 0.026 0.014 (3.646) (1.698) *** * 0.035 0.194 -0.010 0.009 (-1.131) (1.752) * -0.004 -0.003 0.012 0.014 (1.004) (1.703) * 0.066 0.058 -0.021 0.029 (-1.469) (1.569) 0.019 0.009 (5.679) (5.843) *** *** 0.004 -0.023 0.035 -0.004 (2.446) (-0.433) ** 0.092 0.229 0.001 0.014 (0.299) (2.511) ** 0.026 0.087 0.045 0.019 (4.011) (1.780) *** * 0.152 0.036 0.032 0.003 (2.880) (0.543) *** 0.050 0.093 0.001 0.004 (0.023) (0.450) 0.032 0.508 -0.012 0.034 (-0.537) (0.669) -0.017 0.020 0.012 0.049 (0.715) (3.024) -0.075 0.012 (-3.871) (1.075) *** 0.233 -0.789 0.035 0.035 (3.664) (4.040) *** *** 0.052 0.085 0.040 0.022 (2.393) (2.288) ** ** 0.119 0.187 0.045 0.189 *** 25 -0.035 -0.064 (7.071) [-4.608] (1.330) (-0.791) [1.499] (3.546) (9.206) [-3.691] (1.759) (6.578) [-4.480] (-0.244) (-0.160) [-0.052] (1.368) (2.143) [0.139] (2.518) (4.043) [-2.864] (0.521) (-2.828) [2.418] (4.552) (10.338) [-4.580] (1.486) (9.896) [-3.133] (7.982) (0.991) [2.835] (2.474) (3.242) [-1.214] (0.589) (5.879) [-4.679] (-0.483) (0.395) [-0.599] (-1.146) (-4.157) [0.865] (4.226) (-3.263) [4.120] (2.762) (3.875) [-1.148] (5.548) (8.089) *** *** * *** *** *** * *** *** ** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** Country Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey UK US Group t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat M/B R2 nobs 0.861 0.914 407 53 59 ** *** *** *** *** 0.756 0.769 207 208 0.765 0.859 192 200 *** *** *** 0.737 0.692 667 692 0.631 0.677 452 463 0.872 0.938 60 67 0.617 0.812 1889 1913 0.573 0.799 7735 7919 CF/K 0.044 0.096 (1.946) (5.329) * *** 0.231 0.399 0.011 0.050 (0.787) (2.352) ** 0.041 0.130 -0.014 0.033 (-1.252) (3.207) *** 0.098 0.137 0.036 0.014 (3.960) (1.213) -0.003 0.014 (-0.616) (2.208) -0.062 -0.000 (-1.239) (-0.007) 0.012 0.007 (3.230) (4.395) *** *** -0.022 0.099 0.009 0.019 (6.149) (16.369) *** *** -0.004 0.100 *** ** 0.190 0.098 0.026 -0.021 0.046 0.175 26 [-2.164] (1.908) (3.320) [-0.982] (2.491) (5.264) [-3.010] (5.079) (3.467) [-0.893] (7.325) (4.479) [2.701] (0.930) (-1.098) [1.387] (0.518) (3.365) [-1.257] (-3.254) (11.658) [-11.144] (-1.303) (25.004) [-20.238] ** * *** * *** *** *** *** *** *** Table 4 Investment-cash flow sensitivity for financially constrained firms identified by payout ratio The table reports the results of the regression analysis (equation (1)) for financially constrained and unconstrained firms for each country over the period 1998-2004. The regression model is: ( I / K ) it = β M / B ( M / B ) it + β CF / K (CF / K ) it + uit , where investment-cash flow sensitivity is the coefficient estimate for cash flows (CF/K). ‘FC’ and ‘NFC’ indicate financially constrained and unconstrained firms, respectively. In each country, financially constrained (unconstrained) firms are those firm-years in which payout ratio—measured by cash dividends scaled by operating income— belongs to the top (bottom) one-third of the distribution in a given year. The regression model is estimated using fixed firm and year effects. The number of firm-year observations used for this regression may differ between constrained and unconstrained groups because firms that have only one valid firm-year are removed before we run the regression for each group. The numbers in parentheses are OLS t values. The numbers in square brackets are t(βCFFC −βCFNFC), i.e., t-statistic for the difference in the coefficient estimates for CF/K between constrained and unconstrained firms. *, ** and *** indicate two-tailed significance at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels, respectively. Country Group M/B Argentina FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat 0.004 0.007 (0.019) (0.152) 0.100 0.037 (6.699) (1.924) Australia Austria Brazil Canada Chile China Denmark Finland France R2 nobs 0.762 0.795 18 22 0.795 0.762 330 329 0.996 0.949 27 27 0.874 0.754 89 89 *** ** 0.788 0.805 399 269 *** 0.867 0.687 96 98 *** *** *** * 0.769 0.782 390 301 0.766 0.843 82 81 0.820 0.909 78 78 0.873 0.868 383 383 CF/K 0.037 0.235 *** * -0.035 (-1.341) 0.124 (1.684) 0.118 0.175 -0.311 -0.090 0.021 0.007 (3.189) (0.194) *** -0.027 0.004 0.041 0.010 (4.087) (1.452) *** 0.166 0.128 0.029 0.051 (0.428) (1.942) 0.008 0.006 (1.463) (0.402) 0.053 0.332 -0.021 (-0.602) 0.022 (0.852) 0.049 0.082 -0.003 (-0.067) 0.026 (1.318) 0.512 0.041 -0.004 (-0.445) 0.010 (0.798) 0.190 0.219 * 27 0.445 0.345 (0.398) (0.878) [-0.701] (5.089) (7.621) [-1.736] (-3.945) (-0.130) [-0.317] (-0.673) (0.057) [-0.378] (5.460) (2.160) [0.569] (14.487) (1.520) [0.435] (2.971) (9.802) [-7.265] (1.774) (1.380) [-0.503] (2.992) (0.911) [2.660] (8.135) (7.228) [-0.741] *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** Country Group Germany FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC Greece HongKong India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Netherlands NewZealand Norway Philippines Portugal Singapore M/B R2 nobs *** *** ** *** *** 0.814 0.868 270 281 0.785 0.735 922 919 *** *** ** *** *** 0.724 0.742 460 491 0.817 0.794 356 353 *** * 0.598 0.782 342 227 *** 0.921 0.838 54 53 0.716 0.884 146 140 0.775 0.791 1509 1477 0.684 0.775 243 228 *** *** 0.685 0.642 581 580 *** *** 0.897 0.934 145 98 ** *** 0.848 0.903 103 108 *** 0.766 0.886 53 59 0.889 0.904 61 64 0.459 0.750 150 85 0.459 0.750 150 85 0.843 0.667 328 335 CF/K 0.031 (3.382) -0.018 (-1.091) *** 0.067 0.138 0.009 0.011 ** ** 0.130 0.153 (2.121) (2.361) -0.000 (-0.020) -0.004 (-0.278) 0.119 0.173 0.013 0.002 (1.225) (0.317) 0.149 0.092 0.003 0.006 (0.297) (0.411) 0.053 0.053 0.040 (2.927) -0.008 (-0.220) *** 0.378 0.089 0.004 0.014 (0.097) (1.031) 0.006 0.013 (2.067) (2.570) ** ** 0.002 0.062 0.003 (0.303) -0.043 (-3.137) *** 0.274 0.338 *** 0.182 0.159 0.001 0.060 (0.226) (4.003) 0.048 0.026 (4.733) (1.448) 0.001 0.023 (0.064) (1.983) 0.087 0.036 (2.125) (1.508) 0.083 0.501 *** * ** -0.040 (-1.267) 0.039 (1.536) 0.262 0.315 0.115 0.086 -0.173 0.095 0.203 0.107 0.104 (2.333) -0.056 (-1.062) ** -0.062 -0.192 0.104 (2.333) -0.056 (-1.062) ** -0.062 -0.192 0.023 0.021 ** 0.282 0.175 (2.488) (0.972) 28 (2.709) (4.639) [-1.838] (10.325) (7.603) [-0.994] (5.393) (7.679) [-1.723] (4.287) (3.062) [1.235] (2.926) (1.678) [0.011] (4.890) (1.180) [2.667] (2.376) (9.196) [-6.470] (0.137) (6.363) [-3.491] (8.432) (8.454) [-1.233] (11.842) (5.680) [0.722] (11.298) (5.275) [-0.824] (2.401) (2.785) [0.501] (-3.395) (0.683) [-1.813] (3.571) (1.239) [0.924] (-1.012) (-0.826) [0.542] (-1.012) (-0.826) [0.542] (8.671) (4.279) *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** Country SouthAfrica Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey UK US Group t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat M/B -0.014 (-1.264) 0.047 (2.897) 0.048 0.073 (1.010) (1.204) 0.055 0.055 (2.833) (4.976) *** 0.313 0.120 0.384 0.025 *** *** 0.192 -0.030 0.006 (0.845) -0.004 (-0.253) 0.162 0.218 0.008 (0.798) -0.003 (-0.195) 0.298 0.274 0.003 0.047 R2 nobs 0.890 0.848 0.860 0.923 158 159 317 40 45 0.851 0.950 125 127 *** *** ** 0.920 0.827 125 132 *** *** 0.768 0.732 529 457 ** *** *** 0.758 0.790 365 323 0.832 0.945 56 49 0.785 0.735 922 919 0.791 0.828 6730 3529 CF/K (0.773) (3.118) *** -0.010 (-0.196) -0.048 (-1.146) 0.059 0.473 -0.024 0.358 0.009 0.011 (2.121) (2.361) ** ** 0.130 0.153 0.013 0.005 (8.020) (2.743) *** *** 0.143 0.130 29 [2.039] (12.681) (3.975) [4.965] (1.318) (0.207) [1.136] (5.739) (-0.762) [4.322] (6.419) (2.502) [-0.621] (7.722) (8.457) [0.471] (2.422) (8.012) [-6.488] (-0.321) (3.703) [-3.136] (10.325) (7.603) [-0.994] (30.521) (17.479) [1.517] ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** * Table 5 Investment’s sensitivities to internal and external financing for financially constrained firms The table reports the results of the regression analysis (equation (3)) for financially constrained and unconstrained firms for each country over the period 19982004. The regression model is: ( I / K ) it = β M / B ( M / B ) it + β CF / K (CF / K ) it + β EXT / K ( EXT / K ) it + uit , where investment’s sensitivities to internal and external financing are the coefficient estimates for cash flows (CF/K) and external financing (EXT/K), respectively. ‘FC’ and ‘NFC’ indicate financially constrained and unconstrained firms, respectively. Financially constrained (unconstrained) firms are identified by creditworthiness score, firm size and payout ratio in Panels A, B and C, respectively. Due to space limitation, the table reports only the coefficient estimates for CF/K and EXT/K. The regression model is estimated using fixed firm and year effects. The number of firm-year observations used for this regression may differ between constrained and unconstrained groups because firms that have only one valid firm-year are removed before we run the regression for each group. The numbers in parentheses are OLS t values. The numbers in square brackets are F(βCF−βEXT), i.e., F-statistic for the difference in the coefficient estimates for CF/K and EXT/K. *, ** and *** indicate significance of the F-statistic at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels, respectively. Country Group CF/K Argentina FC 0.253 (1.284) 0.068 (1.215) 0.053 (2.661) 0.022 (1.816) 0.167 (8.806) 0.583 (2.855) 0.022 (1.283) 0.207 (3.825) -0.061 (-3.378) NFC Australia FC NFC Austria FC NFC Brazil FC NFC Canada FC Panel A: by creditworthiness EXT/K F-stat 0.288 (1.556) 0.255 (5.019) 0.085 (6.672) 0.074 (4.907) 0.039 (1.332) -0.117 (-0.488) -0.024 (-1.090) 0.359 (8.786) 0.107 (7.448) nobs CF/K [0.023] 35 [29.161] *** [1.666] 36 -0.039 (-1.420) 0.165 (1.449) 0.026 (2.292) 0.114 (7.489) 0.144 (4.444) 0.247 (1.883) 0.024 (1.635) 0.089 (2.093) -0.017 (-1.081) [8.427] *** [14.341] *** [4.060] * [2.497] [4.079] ** [49.637] *** 557 552 41 39 121 131 492 Panel B: by firm size EXT/K F-stat 0.198 (2.017) 0.471 (3.255) 0.095 (6.362) 0.051 (5.906) 0.042 (0.876) 0.154 (2.782) 0.068 (3.043) 0.084 (2.387) 0.137 (8.714) 30 nobs CF/K [5.394] 42 [2.401] 48 [13.642] *** [11.116] *** [2.949] * [0.363] 701 [2.675] 145 [0.008] 143 [45.894] *** 621 0.037 (0.357) 0.279 (0.803) 0.119 (5.350) 0.163 (6.836) -0.268 (-2.336) 0.125 (0.170) -0.029 (-0.776) 0.009 (0.122) 0.142 (4.938) 744 47 50 Panel C: by payout EXT/K F-stat 0.031 (0.039) 0.072 (0.227) 0.099 (4.620) 0.035 (1.710) -0.019 (-0.519) 0.156 (0.902) 0.071 (3.173) 0.105 (1.605) 0.119 (6.473) nobs [0.000] 18 [0.441] 22 [0.420] 330 [12.723] *** [3.052] 329 [0.002] 27 [5.214] ** [1.043] 89 89 [0.391] 399 27 Country Group NFC Chile FC NFC China FC NFC Denmark FC NFC Finland FC NFC France FC NFC Germany FC NFC Greece FC NFC HongKong FC Panel A: by creditworthiness CF/K EXT/K F-stat 0.135 0.089 [1.457] (4.848) (5.117) -0.332 0.317 [8.689] (-1.676) (2.666) *** 0.699 0.068 [42.511] (8.296) (3.112) *** 0.074 0.025 [2.935] (2.889) (1.847) * 0.062 0.034 [1.012] (3.042) (1.912) 0.022 0.137 [8.235] (1.263) (4.141) *** 0.081 0.254 [15.462] (2.999) (6.038) *** 0.196 0.210 [0.045] (4.289) (4.361) -0.028 0.168 [9.734] (-0.748) (4.210) *** 0.106 0.046 [3.705] (4.752) (2.709) * 0.118 0.052 [6.013] (6.424) (2.542) ** 0.068 0.120 [2.339] (3.168) (5.606) 0.022 0.050 [1.202] (1.465) (2.531) -0.079 0.052 [144.820] (-8.162) (6.677) *** 0.084 0.042 [8.532] (7.229) (5.833) *** 0.078 0.160 [17.780] nobs 465 101 105 361 358 107 116 115 114 483 498 419 415 1571 1542 711 CF/K 0.093 (5.792) -0.213 (-1.450) 0.320 (6.973) 0.095 (5.410) 0.189 (5.300) 0.098 (3.380) 0.002 (0.188) 0.042 (1.639) 0.342 (3.079) 0.077 (5.679) 0.097 (6.529) 0.048 (4.247) 0.147 (5.942) -0.045 (-0.266) -0.221 (-1.077) 0.053 Panel B: by firm size EXT/K F-stat 0.044 [6.254] (5.264) ** 0.097 [5.150] (2.318) ** 0.101 [10.668] (3.195) *** 0.059 [2.045] (3.731) 0.062 [8.621] (4.228) *** 0.201 [2.055] (3.681) -0.028 [2.439] (-1.783) 0.161 [5.904] (3.997) ** 0.270 [0.339] (5.594) 0.068 [0.163] (3.958) 0.054 [6.431] (6.588) ** 0.075 [1.515] (4.141) 0.084 [3.587] (5.065) * 0.631 [3.396] (2.678) -0.141 [0.162] (-0.879) 0.107 [12.633] 31 nobs 638 115 119 413 415 124 128 138 142 588 603 477 499 20 23 854 CF/K 0.023 (0.346) 0.384 (11.670) 0.266 (1.257) 0.056 (3.138) 0.317 (9.489) 0.058 (2.337) 0.054 (1.164) 0.134 (0.823) 0.185 (3.989) 0.172 (7.125) 0.198 (6.376) 0.010 (0.414) 0.122 (4.368) 0.119 (9.326) 0.139 (6.864) 0.089 Panel C: by payout EXT/K F-stat 0.073 [0.405] (3.289) 0.084 [37.206] (3.594) *** 0.182 [0.140] (3.399) 0.031 [1.518] (2.912) 0.064 [37.935] (3.263) *** 0.195 [6.044] (3.701) ** 0.304 [11.224] (5.637) *** 0.496 [2.423] (4.716) 0.275 [3.952] (5.013) * 0.044 [15.255] (2.682) *** 0.050 [12.874] (2.445) *** 0.148 [11.859] (6.160) *** 0.161 [0.827] (5.377) 0.037 [22.304] (4.003) *** 0.045 [14.166] (3.886) *** 0.084 [0.036] nobs 269 96 98 390 301 82 81 78 78 383 383 270 281 922 919 460 Country Group NFC India FC NFC Indonesia FC NFC Ireland FC NFC Italy FC NFC Japan FC NFC Korea FC NFC Malaysia FC NFC Panel A: by creditworthiness CF/K EXT/K F-stat (4.996) (11.937) *** 0.070 0.073 [0.034] (6.145) (7.330) -0.095 0.129 [45.199] (-4.887) (5.553) *** 0.171 0.078 [3.660] (5.800) (2.438) * 0.054 0.140 [13.293] (3.635) (6.958) *** 0.069 0.248 [37.461] (3.716) (11.171) *** 0.095 0.011 [0.561] (1.215) (0.251) 0.258 0.090 [4.068] (3.524) (2.212) * 0.037 0.072 [1.676] (2.209) (3.222) 0.133 0.044 [0.789] (1.374) (1.429) -0.035 -0.043 [0.322] (-3.294) (-4.858) 0.016 0.092 [37.442] (1.714) (11.078) *** 0.042 0.039 [0.007] (2.242) (1.840) 0.369 0.030 [27.764] (11.559) (0.640) *** 0.025 0.053 [2.308] (1.812) (5.491) 0.109 0.134 [0.433] (4.948) (5.675) nobs 709 392 379 272 282 62 65 202 202 1903 1969 304 288 811 788 CF/K (4.856) 0.076 (6.942) 0.027 (1.381) 0.177 (6.007) 0.020 (1.465) 0.017 (1.093) 0.066 (1.357) 0.041 (1.293) 0.045 (2.481) 0.191 (4.746) -0.002 (-0.216) -0.026 (-3.162) 0.075 (3.651) 0.202 (8.489) 0.020 (1.171) 0.077 (8.671) Panel B: by firm size EXT/K F-stat (8.995) *** 0.062 [0.733] (7.422) 0.197 [13.012] (4.757) *** 0.063 [9.100] (3.293) *** 0.212 [83.851] (11.814) *** 0.182 [44.412] (8.522) *** -0.005 [1.377] (-0.136) 0.027 [0.081] (1.127) 0.032 [0.182] (1.408) 0.169 [0.217] (7.817) 0.079 [45.753] (9.105) *** -0.032 [0.307] (-3.497) 0.069 [0.037] (2.835) 0.056 [16.134] (2.862) *** 0.069 [4.227] (4.536) ** 0.053 [2.952] (5.669) * 32 nobs 892 432 444 345 351 68 70 219 224 2143 2203 332 345 926 954 CF/K (4.114) 0.171 (7.581) 0.026 (0.660) 0.105 (3.568) 0.050 (3.214) 0.050 (1.655) 0.250 (2.779) 0.060 (0.834) 0.079 (2.284) 0.504 (9.165) -0.010 (-0.741) 0.055 (5.995) 0.213 (6.274) 0.352 (8.891) 0.176 (11.371) 0.118 (4.412) Panel C: by payout EXT/K F-stat (5.321) 0.013 [30.152] (0.771) *** 0.167 [5.632] (5.848) ** 0.180 [2.148] (4.008) 0.164 [23.331] (9.424) *** 0.168 [5.119] (4.022) ** 0.076 [2.407] (2.396) 0.110 [0.296] (2.385) 0.044 [0.556] (1.557) -0.022 [55.285] (-0.565) *** 0.085 [28.503] (8.589) *** 0.132 [24.190] (11.017) *** 0.119 [3.327] (4.334) * 0.139 [11.861] (2.624) *** 0.041 [29.471] (2.410) *** 0.224 [5.820] (7.571) ** nobs 491 356 353 342 227 54 53 146 140 1509 1477 243 228 581 580 Country Mexico Group FC NFC Netherlands FC NFC NewZealand FC NFC Norway FC NFC Philippines FC NFC Portugal FC NFC Singapore FC NFC SouthAfrica FC NFC Panel A: by creditworthiness CF/K EXT/K F-stat -0.073 0.100 [13.200] (-2.610) (3.937) *** 0.285 0.068 [23.021] (9.833) (2.739) *** 0.053 0.075 [0.405] (2.219) (3.230) 0.103 0.045 [1.162] (2.248) (2.213) 0.756 -0.132 [54.618] (7.701) (-3.131) *** -0.006 0.031 [0.845] (-0.198) (1.056) 0.187 -0.053 [8.622] (3.240) (-1.208) *** 0.030 0.082 [1.220] (1.031) (2.533) -0.000 -0.017 [0.372] (-0.025) (-0.897) 0.491 0.551 [0.850] (3.445) (3.956) 0.226 0.101 [0.121] (0.691) (1.264) 0.154 0.007 [2.210] (1.578) (0.272) 0.415 0.063 [54.926] (10.025) (2.597) *** -0.005 0.085 [12.034] (-0.274) (5.344) *** 0.104 0.113 [0.042] (3.554) (4.054) 0.137 0.093 [1.325] nobs 107 111 171 178 56 65 97 94 119 120 31 34 498 492 179 168 CF/K 0.136 (7.526) -0.007 (-0.192) 0.041 (2.038) 0.083 (2.970) 0.033 (0.599) 0.531 (6.398) -0.021 (-0.637) -0.033 (-0.758) -0.029 (-0.935) -0.064 (-4.150) 0.235 (4.281) -0.747 (-3.188) 0.042 (2.269) 0.015 (0.698) 0.100 (4.495) 0.162 Panel B: by firm size EXT/K F-stat 0.104 [0.875] (4.164) 0.040 [1.072] (2.838) 0.089 [1.692] (3.122) 0.032 [2.831] (3.256) * 0.011 [0.090] (0.214) 0.085 [26.672] (2.489) *** 0.123 [8.540] (3.431) *** 0.194 [13.768] (5.671) *** -0.090 [0.716] (-1.461) -0.007 [5.068] (-0.334) ** 0.044 [8.027] (1.101) ** 0.043 [11.513] (1.628) *** 0.096 [3.387] (4.554) * 0.139 [15.583] (8.694) *** 0.064 [0.907] (2.567) 0.094 [3.161] 33 nobs 137 144 206 208 70 75 117 120 171 175 35 36 556 574 202 205 CF/K 0.248 (10.360) 0.300 (4.589) 0.023 (0.440) 0.074 (2.527) -0.191 (-3.250) 0.115 (0.834) 0.205 (3.522) 0.102 (1.265) -0.066 (-1.017) -0.196 (-0.832) -0.066 (-1.017) -0.196 (-0.832) 0.234 (7.016) 0.143 (3.598) 0.256 (9.730) 0.119 Panel C: by payout EXT/K F-stat 0.036 [39.708] (2.026) *** 0.032 [7.143] (0.593) *** 0.101 [1.151] (3.366) 0.116 [0.783] (3.400) -0.035 [7.153] (-0.633) ** 0.046 [0.246] (1.354) -0.009 [9.120] (-0.266) *** 0.255 [1.416] (2.604) 0.010 [0.654] (0.202) 0.017 [0.658] (0.178) 0.010 [0.654] (0.202) 0.017 [0.658] (0.178) 0.082 [11.978] (4.179) *** 0.110 [0.460] (4.753) 0.107 [11.414] (4.395) *** 0.019 [1.467] nobs 145 98 103 108 53 59 61 64 150 85 150 85 328 335 158 159 Country Group Spain FC NFC Sweden FC NFC Switzerland FC NFC Taiwan FC NFC Thailand FC NFC Turkey FC NFC UK FC NFC US FC Panel A: by creditworthiness CF/K EXT/K F-stat (6.107) (3.617) 0.682 -0.018 [8.074] (3.419) (-0.177) *** 0.126 -0.018 [0.882] (0.911) (-0.296) 0.142 0.118 [0.377] (4.834) (4.146) -0.009 0.020 [0.806] (-0.353) (0.886) 0.080 0.065 [0.120] (3.657) (2.141) 0.097 0.053 [2.543] (4.391) (2.704) 0.083 0.116 [1.334] (3.746) (6.910) 0.134 0.186 [1.553] (4.593) (7.014) 0.183 0.156 [0.268] (4.362) (5.343) 0.017 0.021 [0.009] (0.680) (1.212) 0.377 0.193 [0.469] (2.720) (0.820) -0.219 0.642 [11.418] (-1.514) (4.231) *** -0.079 0.052 [144.820] (-8.162) (6.677) *** 0.084 0.042 [8.532] (7.229) (5.833) *** -0.049 0.076 [415.270] (-9.312) (18.168) *** nobs 51 58 178 187 149 165 553 567 416 432 42 44 1571 1542 5648 CF/K (6.977) 0.232 (1.873) 0.412 (3.353) 0.043 (2.644) 0.057 (2.074) 0.090 (5.080) 0.143 (3.839) 0.177 (6.786) 0.097 (4.591) -0.005 (-0.180) -0.042 (-2.158) 0.043 (0.477) 0.182 (3.246) -0.015 (-2.213) 0.085 (10.070) 0.005 (1.711) Panel B: by firm size EXT/K F-stat (3.825) * 0.011 [1.403] (0.073) -0.026 [10.291] (-0.625) *** 0.047 [0.035] (2.250) 0.150 [3.106] (4.723) * 0.139 [2.076] (5.075) 0.062 [4.187] (4.444) ** 0.059 [12.265] (3.339) *** 0.120 [0.643] (6.435) 0.077 [5.220] (4.635) ** 0.061 [12.751] (3.750) *** 0.035 [0.002] (0.252) -0.024 [4.436] (-0.380) ** 0.076 [87.306] (9.566) *** 0.036 [23.212] (8.176) *** 0.089 [313.517] (22.479) *** 34 nobs 53 59 207 208 192 200 667 692 452 463 60 67 1889 1913 7735 CF/K (3.910) 0.521 (1.935) -0.060 (-0.506) 0.176 (5.237) -0.016 (-0.394) 0.161 (6.324) 0.172 (1.932) 0.274 (7.581) 0.267 (8.200) 0.042 (1.715) 0.456 (7.615) -0.058 (-0.828) 0.360 (3.582) 0.119 (9.326) 0.139 (6.864) 0.129 (27.330) Panel C: by payout EXT/K F-stat (0.253) -0.329 [6.653] (-2.347) ** 0.229 [2.670] (2.298) 0.093 [1.918] (2.187) 0.019 [0.819] (0.878) 0.002 [20.645] (0.079) *** 0.057 [1.273] (1.880) 0.149 [8.451] (7.264) *** 0.058 [15.933] (1.582) *** 0.043 [0.002] (3.134) 0.067 [22.966] (1.489) *** 0.277 [4.768] (2.269) ** -0.007 [7.129] (-0.089) ** 0.037 [22.304] (4.003) *** 0.045 [14.166] (3.886) *** 0.045 [176.947] (13.824) *** nobs 40 45 125 127 125 132 529 457 365 323 56 49 922 919 6730 Country Group NFC Panel A: by creditworthiness CF/K EXT/K F-stat 0.071 0.069 [0.126] (14.577) (16.201) nobs 5605 CF/K 0.089 (22.577) Panel B: by firm size EXT/K F-stat 0.048 [70.818] (19.611) *** 35 nobs 7919 CF/K 0.126 (17.012) Panel C: by payout EXT/K F-stat 0.018 [156.400] (4.524) *** nobs 3529 Table 6 Mean and median values for internal and external financing for financially constrained firms The table reports the mean and median values for the amounts of investments (I/K), internal financing (CF/K) and external financing (EXT/K) for financially constrained and unconstrained firms for each country over the period 1998-2004. ‘FC’ and ‘NFC’ indicate financially constrained and unconstrained firms, respectively. Financially constrained (unconstrained) firms are identified on the basis of creditworthiness score, firm size and payout ratio in Panels A, B and C, respectively. The numbers in square brackets are medians. Country Group Argentina FC NFC Australia FC NFC Austria FC NFC Brazil FC NFC Canada FC NFC Chile FC Panel A: by creditworthiness I/K CF/K EXT/K nobs 0.122 0.358 [0.088] [0.190] 0.138 0.016 [0.066] [0.013] 0.333 0.793 [0.182] [0.345] 0.349 -0.407 [0.185] [-0.042] 0.032 0.300 [0.205] [0.208] 0.266 0.329 [0.194] [0.281] 0.214 0.671 [0.183] [0.418] 0.212 0.282 [0.138] [0.304] 0.280 -0.384 [0.137] [0.058] 0.360 0.678 [0.253] [0.359] 0.264 0.131 [0.096] [0.274] 0.154 [0.000] 0.282 [0.006] 0.782 [0.224] 1.536 [0.534] 0.375 [0.042] 0.125 [0.060] 0.432 [0.096] 0.353 [0.172] 0.915 [0.194] 0.488 [0.153] 0.179 [0.072] 44 45 630 631 45 47 143 143 533 535 115 I/K Panel B: by firm size CF/K EXT/K nobs 0.141 0.416 [0.080] [0.153] 0.140 0.276 [0.099] [0.218] 0.397 -0.733 [0.175] [-0.161] 0.243 0.583 [0.160] [0.275] 0.460 0.280 [0.324] [0.253] 0.194 0.198 [0.160] [0.216] 0.211 0.291 [0.183] [0.372] 0.186 0.413 [0.137] [0.301] 0.460 -0.473 [0.239] [0.063] 0.204 0.337 [0.151] [0.212] 0.156 0.289 [0.104] [0.267] 36 0.265 [0.000] 0.120 [0.019] 1.508 [0.420] 0.912 [0.326] 0.414 [0.105] 0.154 [0.063] 0.288 [0.065] 0.492 [0.228] 1.187 [0.242] 0.413 [0.128] 0.353 [0.162] 45 49 758 759 49 50 146 150 656 659 119 I/K 0.141 [0.088] 0.163 [0.102] 0.313 [0.154] 0.303 [0.176] 0.400 [0.172] 0.265 [0.210] 0.166 [0.139] 0.232 [0.188] 0.388 [0.260] 0.200 [0.136] 0.161 [0.091] Panel C: by payout CF/K EXT/K 0.478 [0.165] 0.601 [0.349] 0.767 [0.308] 0.984 [0.431] 0.518 [0.192] 0.325 [0.288] 0.376 [0.254] 0.533 [0.436] 0.638 [0.362] 0.495 [0.245] 0.292 [0.181] 0.233 [0.000] 0.170 [0.003] 0.803 [0.236] 0.750 [0.219] 0.393 [0.114] 0.117 [0.063] 0.348 [0.137] 0.254 [0.106] 0.663 [0.171] 0.284 [0.083] 0.586 [0.290] nobs 26 28 379 381 29 32 99 101 413 279 104 Country China Denmark Finland France Germany Greece HongKong India Panel A: by creditworthiness Group I/K CF/K EXT/K nobs NFC 0.189 0.306 0.767 119 [0.104] [0.224] [0.503] FC 0.193 0.307 0.859 416 [0.112] [0.210] [0.172] NFC 0.248 0.261 0.920 419 [0.164] [0.172] [0.492] FC 0.221 0.281 0.435 122 [0.157] [0.221] [0.091] NFC 0.297 0.190 0.165 126 [0.196] [0.327] [0.000] 0.838 0.230 139 FC 0.315 [0.209] [0.457] [0.031] NFC 0.427 -0.303 0.592 142 [0.117] [0.239] [0.146] FC 0.526 1.101 1.009 574 [0.329] [0.660] [0.213] NFC 0.391 0.340 0.630 576 [0.258] [0.250] [0.164] 0.737 0.548 490 FC 0.383 [0.243] [0.400] [0.112] 0.334 -0.009 0.473 491 NFC [0.215] [0.106] [0.055] FC 0.304 0.859 0.155 19 [0.140] [0.480] [0.015] NFC 0.425 0.634 0.443 19 [0.259] [0.302] [0.263] FC 0.236 0.070 0.629 829 [0.103] [0.075] [0.110] 0.176 0.247 0.608 832 NFC [0.089] [0.155] [0.101] FC 0.133 0.095 0.199 437 Panel B: by firm size I/K CF/K EXT/K nobs 0.165 0.286 0.440 121 [0.101] [0.177] [0.208] 0.170 0.174 0.598 433 [0.082] [0.157] [0.008] 0.264 0.371 1.141 434 [0.183] [0.250] [0.619] 0.275 0.140 0.250 127 [0.168] [0.209] [0.000] 0.244 0.322 0.361 129 [0.184] [0.285] [0.045] 0.497 0.157 0.615 141 [0.273] [0.434] [0.117] 0.244 0.417 0.188 144 [0.169] [0.224] [0.041] 0.521 0.552 0.860 610 [0.316] [0.444] [0.137] 0.306 0.631 0.566 612 [0.254] [0.362] [0.154] 0.401 0.180 0.484 512 [0.237] [0.256] [0.015] 0.287 0.531 0.346 515 [0.227] [0.324] [0.113] 0.409 0.580 0.327 24 [0.333] [0.324] [0.096] 0.301 0.504 0.332 26 [0.213] [0.266] [0.217] 0.241 -0.317 0.702 908 [0.085] [-0.040] [0.083] 0.168 0.347 0.590 910 [0.080] [0.160] [0.185] 0.237 0.514 0.154 453 37 I/K 0.129 [0.100] 0.180 [0.109] 0.264 [0.178] 0.333 [0.208] 0.247 [0.188] 0.431 [0.253] 0.293 [0.192] 0.467 [0.294] 0.357 [0.267] 0.368 [0.224] 0.355 [0.245] 0.213 [0.175] 0.454 [0.257] 0.223 [0.085] 0.203 [0.128] 0.184 Panel C: by payout CF/K EXT/K 0.327 0.304 [0.271] [0.107] 0.286 0.845 [0.166] [0.303] 0.381 0.797 [0.280] [0.256] 0.587 0.468 [0.341] [0.072] 0.481 0.119 [0.316] [0.005] 0.797 0.353 [0.354] [0.136] 0.529 0.248 [0.308] [0.050] 1.193 1.003 [0.523] [0.287] 0.927 0.394 [0.531] [0.104] 0.691 0.448 [0.330] [0.096] 0.777 0.321 [0.441] [0.050] 0.480 0.163 [0.254] [0.079] 0.989 0.241 [0.395] [0.107] 0.410 0.678 [0.154] [0.207] 0.616 0.361 [0.394] [0.044] 0.286 0.244 nobs 106 439 367 90 91 92 94 421 422 314 316 16 19 520 522 380 Country Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Panel A: by creditworthiness Group I/K CF/K EXT/K nobs [0.084] [0.089] [0.093] NFC 0.301 0.717 0.199 438 [0.210] [0.551] [0.028] FC 0.143 0.300 0.216 316 [0.091] [0.190] [0.000] NFC 0.150 0.091 0.154 317 [0.058] [0.060] [0.000] 0.255 0.602 66 FC 0.187 [0.148] [0.228] [0.094] NFC 0.294 0.888 0.777 69 [0.062] [0.225] [0.567] FC 0.266 -0.056 0.468 220 [0.157] [0.151] [0.000] 0.295 0.807 0.452 222 NFC [0.213] [0.408] [0.066] 0.044 0.213 2141 FC 0.101 [0.076] [0.076] [0.106] NFC 0.200 0.552 0.217 2144 [0.140] [0.302] [0.007] FC 0.146 -0.092 0.474 339 [0.046] [0.065] [0.014] NFC 0.173 0.313 0.212 340 [0.099] [0.217] [0.040] 0.027 0.303 891 FC 0.085 [0.035] [0.021] [0.038] 0.160 0.359 0.156 894 NFC [0.091] [0.228] [0.005] FC 0.085 -0.028 0.361 124 [0.051] [0.069] [0.075] NFC 0.164 0.415 0.180 126 [0.113] [0.267] [0.002] Panel B: by firm size I/K CF/K EXT/K nobs [0.148] [0.364] [0.012] 0.188 0.326 0.235 455 [0.118] [0.177] [0.096] 0.187 0.271 0.196 352 [0.090] [0.159] [0.000] 0.149 0.257 0.198 353 [0.073] [0.136] [0.000] 0.193 0.502 0.402 69 [0.139] [0.316] [0.012] 0.215 0.400 0.690 70 [0.167] [0.344] [0.226] 0.296 0.286 0.504 226 [0.159] [0.292] [0.000] 0.236 0.570 0.406 229 [0.169] [0.286] [0.087] 0.169 0.380 0.255 2224 [0.099] [0.185] [0.032] 0.133 0.202 0.164 2226 [0.111] [0.157] [0.077] 0.221 0.136 0.497 352 [0.085] [0.141] [0.005] 0.123 0.194 0.293 353 [0.063] [0.149] [0.103] 0.121 0.111 0.143 972 [0.056] [0.111] [0.002] 0.122 0.262 0.310 974 [0.064] [0.115] [0.035] 0.143 0.134 0.208 142 [0.077] [0.179] [0.003] 0.106 0.227 0.200 144 [0.093] [0.188] [0.084] 38 I/K [0.091] 0.196 [0.150] 0.164 [0.089] 0.238 [0.166] 0.309 [0.232] 0.212 [0.156] 0.276 [0.163] 0.288 [0.209] 0.183 [0.124] 0.123 [0.095] 0.105 [0.046] 0.174 [0.100] 0.122 [0.053] 0.149 [0.092] 0.141 [0.077] 0.132 [0.105] Panel C: by payout CF/K EXT/K [0.130] [0.080] 0.520 0.137 [0.401] [0.026] 0.165 0.254 [0.109] [0.000] 0.596 0.197 [0.384] [0.000] 0.643 0.744 [0.371] [0.186] 0.630 0.810 [0.407] [0.118] 0.554 0.462 [0.251] [0.089] 0.832 0.243 [0.479] [0.002] 0.471 0.279 [0.239] [0.084] 0.240 0.118 [0.152] [0.029] 0.230 0.292 [0.121] [0.066] 0.364 0.158 [0.250] [0.024] 0.203 0.231 [0.102] [0.025] 0.365 0.160 [0.221] [0.007] 0.242 0.333 [0.155] [0.046] 0.302 0.093 [0.243] [0.001] nobs 381 365 253 56 59 161 162 1738 1741 272 256 638 641 150 104 Country Netherlands NewZealand Norway Philippines Portugal Singapore SouthAfrica Spain Panel A: by creditworthiness Group I/K CF/K EXT/K nobs FC 0.300 0.425 0.645 191 [0.190] [0.225] [0.040] NFC 0.288 0.670 0.561 195 [0.212] [0.386] [0.058] FC 0.195 0.360 0.206 68 [0.137] [0.237] [0.023] NFC 0.244 0.832 0.910 68 [0.237] [0.171] [0.437] FC 0.455 0.612 0.756 115 [0.296] [0.221] [0.267] 0.325 0.408 0.483 117 NFC [0.220] [0.104] [0.052] FC 0.087 0.297 0.264 130 [0.030] [0.033] [0.000] NFC 0.178 0.157 0.144 132 [0.000] [0.062] [0.157] FC 0.189 0.010 0.785 36 [0.142] [0.128] [0.293] 0.185 0.213 1.808 38 NFC [0.144] [0.167] [1.161] 0.164 0.185 552 FC 0.150 [0.075] [0.136] [0.048] NFC 0.234 0.229 0.456 553 [0.122] [0.157] [0.023] FC 0.281 0.705 0.311 200 [0.199] [0.348] [0.033] NFC 0.434 1.088 0.421 201 [0.330] [0.598] [0.036] 0.347 0.127 57 FC 0.229 [0.183] [0.326] [0.033] NFC 0.278 0.920 0.326 60 Panel B: by firm size I/K CF/K EXT/K nobs 0.344 0.502 0.660 208 [0.221] [0.325] [0.010] 0.257 0.547 0.630 210 [0.203] [0.377] [0.129] 0.289 0.877 0.512 73 [0.183] [0.525] [0.026] 0.136 0.219 0.326 77 [0.077] [0.141] [0.138] 0.472 0.387 0.784 121 [0.263] [0.150] [0.055] 0.298 0.142 0.465 122 [0.186] [0.146] [0.181] 0.142 0.162 0.140 177 [0.036] [0.058] [0.000] 0.181 0.250 0.354 178 [0.092] [0.157] [0.042] 0.190 0.086 1.076 36 [0.152] [0.170] [0.251] 0.155 0.185 0.921 38 [0.121] [0.153] [0.629] 0.227 0.103 0.273 585 [0.102] [0.121] [0.006] 0.162 0.267 0.282 588 [0.090] [0.135] [0.055] 0.357 1.008 0.347 212 [0.270] [0.566] [0.016] 0.323 0.691 0.368 213 [0.247] [0.369] [0.079] 0.252 0.330 0.099 57 [0.209] [0.326] [0.011] 0.234 0.369 0.339 60 39 I/K 0.306 [0.193] 0.261 [0.209] 0.179 [0.105] 0.224 [0.191] 0.422 [0.303] 0.314 [0.186] 0.155 [0.057] 0.201 [0.138] 0.178 [0.092] 0.285 [0.233] 0.216 [0.105] 0.178 [0.092] 0.410 [0.299] 0.316 [0.268] 0.302 [0.182] 0.254 Panel C: by payout CF/K EXT/K 0.806 0.532 [0.323] [0.091] 0.623 0.243 [0.418] [0.019] 0.453 0.443 [0.232] [0.097] 0.672 0.345 [0.471] [0.027] 1.148 1.092 [0.284] [0.279] 0.504 0.199 [0.221] [0.041] 0.424 0.189 [0.139] [0.000] 0.368 0.255 [0.250] [0.014] 0.277 1.685 [0.133] [1.132] 0.127 1.293 [0.148] [0.576] 0.411 0.377 [0.191] [0.071] 0.502 0.207 [0.242] [0.012] 0.873 0.482 [0.428] [0.060] 1.028 0.146 [0.535] [0.016] 0.377 0.212 [0.300] [0.065] 0.918 0.236 nobs 111 116 60 62 72 73 157 95 18 19 377 380 170 173 47 51 Country Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey UK US Panel A: by creditworthiness Group I/K CF/K EXT/K nobs [0.225] [0.362] [0.124] FC 0.347 1.191 0.605 204 [0.227] [0.610] [0.098] NFC 0.337 -1.066 1.240 206 [0.203] [-0.035] [0.109] FC 0.265 0.227 0.441 190 [0.166] [0.276] [0.065] 0.218 0.552 0.376 195 NFC [0.150] [0.369] [0.049] FC 0.175 0.396 0.227 673 [0.095] [0.210] [0.000] NFC 0.256 0.356 0.326 676 [0.132] [0.194] [0.092] 0.483 0.111 454 FC 0.180 [0.113] [0.356] [0.000] 0.113 0.160 0.282 458 NFC [0.044] [0.106] [0.014] FC 0.740 1.561 0.346 62 [0.660] [1.310] [0.122] NFC 0.518 0.349 0.493 65 [0.079] [0.242] [0.437] FC 0.287 -0.954 0.979 1741 [0.152] [-0.069] [0.083] 0.380 1.240 0.884 1744 NFC [0.253] [0.680] [0.079] -1.175 1.504 6252 FC 0.313 [0.157] [-0.204] [0.461] NFC 0.394 1.112 0.873 6253 [0.273] [0.691] [0.192] Panel B: by firm size I/K CF/K EXT/K [0.174] [0.306] [0.116] 0.405 -0.366 1.251 [0.294] [0.233] [0.227] 0.316 0.595 0.490 [0.187] [0.348] [0.093] 0.247 -0.122 0.338 [0.130] [0.159] [0.015] 0.199 0.472 0.388 [0.167] [0.323] [0.090] 0.222 0.524 0.252 [0.096] [0.252] [0.000] 0.221 0.352 0.250 [0.131] [0.192] [0.092] 0.109 0.196 0.098 [0.059] [0.200] [0.000] 0.163 0.381 0.356 [0.078] [0.180] [0.025] 0.579 1.048 0.689 [0.311] [0.812] [0.078] 0.510 0.846 0.428 [0.445] [0.616] [0.190] 0.392 -0.685 1.195 [0.195] [-0.013] [0.052] 0.250 0.671 0.551 [0.186] [0.354] [0.080] 0.384 -1.019 1.465 [0.187] [-0.249] [0.291] 0.288 0.690 0.864 [0.200] [0.402] [0.240] 40 nobs 211 213 199 203 704 705 467 470 68 71 1937 1939 8034 8035 I/K [0.225] 0.387 [0.267] 0.290 [0.207] 0.263 [0.170] 0.188 [0.139] 0.210 [0.106] 0.219 [0.122] 0.109 [0.051] 0.192 [0.120] 0.545 [0.377] 0.742 [0.685] 0.348 [0.229] 0.258 [0.172] 0.360 [0.248] 0.215 [0.168] Panel C: by payout CF/K EXT/K [0.304] [0.108] 1.080 0.622 [0.547] [0.184] 0.680 0.366 [0.376] [0.086] 0.520 0.513 [0.246] [0.094] 0.473 0.274 [0.289] [0.033] 0.284 0.279 [0.154] [0.055] 0.707 0.222 [0.362] [0.000] 0.212 0.209 [0.153] [0.001] 0.535 0.144 [0.328] [0.000] 0.599 0.552 [0.510] [0.182] 1.436 0.406 [1.062] [0.030] 1.216 0.783 [0.569] [0.069] 0.671 0.383 [0.367] [0.019] 1.139 0.959 [0.610] [0.249] 0.665 0.459 [0.422] [0.122] nobs 138 140 146 149 598 515 402 358 67 59 1008 1009 6774 3613 Table 7 Investment-cash flow sensitivity for low cash flow firms The table reports the results of the regression analysis (equation (1)) for low and high cash-flow firms for each country over the period 1998-2004. The regression model is: ( I / K ) it = β M / B ( M / B ) it + β CF / K (CF / K ) it + uit , where investment-cash flow sensitivity is the coefficient estimate for cash flows (CF/K). ‘L-CF’ and ‘H-CF’ indicate low and high cash-flow firms, respectively. In each country, low (high) cash-flow firms are those firm-years in which the amount of cash flows belongs to the top (bottom) one-third of the distribution in a given year. The regression model is estimated using fixed firm and year effects. The number of firm-year observations used for this regression may differ between constrained and unconstrained groups because firms that have only one valid firmyear are removed before we run the regression for each group. The numbers in parentheses are OLS t values. The numbers in square brackets are t(βCFFC −βCFNFC), i.e., t-statistic for the difference in the coefficient estimates for CF/K between constrained and unconstrained firms. *, ** and *** indicate twotailed significance at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels, respectively. Country Argentina Australia Austria Brazil Canada Chile China Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Group L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF M/B 0.002 -0.009 CF/K -0.049 0.054 (0.248) (-0.280) 0.009 0.060 (1.157) (5.259) -0.045 -0.000 (-0.590) (-0.017) 0.007 0.086 (0.589) (3.883) *** 0.044 0.120 0.024 0.034 (3.323) (3.070) *** *** -0.163 0.197 0.056 0.025 (1.299) (0.797) -0.738 0.038 0.001 0.008 (0.357) (0.528) 0.025 0.175 0.048 0.008 (4.043) (0.492) *** -0.270 0.217 0.102 0.061 (4.777) (2.364) *** ** -0.110 0.166 0.028 -0.003 (3.404) (-0.306) *** -0.034 0.155 0.017 0.030 (2.732) (2.367) *** ** -0.088 0.168 0.006 0.006 (1.863) (2.092) * ** -0.144 0.149 *** -0.092 0.125 0.207 -0.057 41 (-1.014) (0.635) [-1.050] (-4.049) (5.597) [-6.810] (0.596) (-0.574) [0.730] (1.394) (2.515) [-1.339] (-6.604) (7.328) [-9.864] (-6.428) (0.188) [-3.364] (1.819) (4.958) [-3.968] (-5.263) (2.926) [-5.401] (-2.583) (3.454) [-4.298] (-1.431) (6.866) [-5.775] (-4.427) (5.712) [-7.211] (-13.477) (12.897) *** *** *** ** * *** *** *** *** *** * *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** R2 0.823 0.761 nobs 38 38 0.672 0.807 548 571 0.888 0.984 41 40 0.732 0.780 128 133 0.720 0.815 484 470 0.788 0.695 110 111 0.779 0.773 368 362 0.770 0.848 106 115 0.745 0.823 120 128 0.716 0.880 509 522 0.716 0.796 426 425 0.678 0.786 1599 1635 Country HongKong India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Netherlands NewZealand Norway Philippines Portugal Singapore SouthAfrica Spain Group t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat M/B CF/K -0.006 0.022 (-1.245) (2.371) ** -0.146 0.185 0.006 0.012 (0.813) (1.668) * -0.026 0.171 0.004 -0.007 (0.638) (-0.682) -0.229 0.139 0.010 0.010 (0.890) (0.528) 0.177 0.169 -0.012 0.000 (-0.971) (0.001) -0.029 0.193 0.002 0.021 (1.398) (5.518) 0.007 0.010 (0.978) (0.593) -0.003 0.283 0.002 0.008 (0.661) (0.720) -0.035 0.169 0.002 0.054 (0.256) (4.346) 0.012 0.022 (1.239) (1.550) 0.085 -0.045 (2.985) (-1.600) *** 0.053 -0.064 (1.739) (-2.542) * ** 0.008 0.163 0.044 0.066 (2.282) (2.508) ** ** -0.082 0.185 -0.013 -0.046 (-0.380) (-1.429) -0.002 0.059 (-0.348) (4.167) -0.004 -0.000 0.000 0.022 0.073 (-0.588) (-0.007) (0.007) (1.445) (3.076) *** *** -0.190 0.102 -0.014 0.283 -0.072 0.076 0.131 0.149 0.079 0.329 *** -0.166 0.187 *** -0.062 0.189 0.186 0.226 -0.099 42 [-18.618] (-9.441) (10.893) [-14.411] (-1.203) (5.775) [-5.394] (-6.761) (4.732) [-8.208] (0.991) (2.328) [0.040] (-1.079) (4.903) [-4.670] (-16.963) (7.510) [-16.599] (-0.149) (7.477) [-6.634] (-1.979) (6.734) [-6.634] (-0.773) (10.222) [-9.043] (-1.431) (2.329) [-2.466] (1.203) (3.557) [-0.154] (0.139) (3.859) [-2.147] (-1.879) (2.794) [-3.367] (1.024) (2.158) [-1.459] (-6.874) (7.416) [-10.110] (-1.779) (7.152) [9.558] (0.523) (-0.682) [0.712] *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** ** * *** *** ** * *** *** *** * *** *** R2 nobs 0.582 0.781 751 744 0.719 0.809 398 401 0.659 0.749 281 286 0.699 0.912 60 66 0.588 0.798 202 210 0.739 0.792 1881 1954 0.649 0.729 299 296 0.580 0.652 814 804 0.712 0.942 117 110 0.692 0.792 175 183 0.793 0.886 63 63 0.831 0.878 105 104 0.484 0.689 118 118 0.865 0.906 33 34 0.598 0.774 512 499 0.820 0.848 0.837 0.806 0.869 178 185 363 50 55 Country Group M/B Sweden L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat L-CF H-CF t-stat 0.058 0.025 (3.763) (1.732) *** * -0.077 0.124 0.032 -0.003 (2.781) (-0.349) *** 0.029 0.252 0.012 0.004 (1.392) (0.263) 0.001 0.022 (0.260) (2.686) 0.004 -0.009 (0.089) (-0.114) 0.006 0.006 (1.863) (2.092) * ** -0.144 0.149 0.010 0.008 (6.732) (4.588) *** *** -0.132 0.167 Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey UK US CF/K -0.029 0.235 *** -0.196 0.070 -0.126 0.242 43 (-2.561) (4.034) [-4.677] (1.594) (9.896) [-7.123] (-2.238) (7.654) [-7.919] (-8.105) (3.468) [-8.443] (-1.039) (1.964) [-2.128] (-13.477) (12.897) [-18.618] (-22.016) (30.527) [-36.821] ** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** * ** *** *** *** *** *** *** R2 nobs 0.747 0.822 180 186 0.821 0.900 162 176 0.648 0.768 615 611 0.592 0.788 414 418 0.883 0.849 45 51 0.678 0.786 1599 1635 0.658 0.807 5754 5817 Table 8 Investment-cash flow sensitivity for financially constrained firms after removing negative cash-flow firms The table reports the results of the regression analysis (equation (1)) for financially constrained and unconstrained firms for each country over the period 19982004 after removing negative cash-flow observations. The regression model is: ( I / K ) it = β M / B ( M / B ) it + β CF / K (CF / K ) it + uit , where investment-cash flow sensitivity is the coefficient estimate for cash flows (CF/K). ‘FC’ and ‘NFC’ indicate financially constrained and unconstrained firms, respectively. Financially constrained (unconstrained) firms are identified by creditworthiness score, firm size and payout ratio in Panels A, B and C, respectively. Due to space limitation, the table reports only the coefficient estimate for CF/K. The regression model is estimated using fixed firm and year effects. The number of firm-year observations used for this regression may differ between constrained and unconstrained groups because firms that have only one valid firm-year are removed before we run the regression for each group. The numbers in parentheses are OLS t values. The numbers in parentheses are OLS t values. The numbers in square brackets are t(βCFFC −βCFNFC), i.e., t-statistic for the difference in the coefficient estimates for CF/K between constrained and unconstrained firms. *, ** and *** indicate significance at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels, respectively. Country Argentina Australia Austria Brazil Canada Chile China Group FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC Panel A: by creditworthiness CF/K nobs 0.094 (1.586) 26 -0.058 (-0.296) 26 [0.743] 427 0.196 (6.991) *** 0.108 (5.050) *** 406 [2.509] *** 0.243 (1.282) 37 0.498 (2.274) ** 36 [-0.880] 0.035 (1.851) * 111 0.674 (6.161) *** 119 [-5.749] *** 388 0.270 (7.904) *** 0.258 (7.740) *** 384 [0.256] 0.021 (0.067) 94 0.870 (10.963) *** 102 [-2.594] *** 310 0.142 (3.639) *** Panel B: by firm size CFK -0.098 0.235 0.198 0.222 -0.058 0.531 0.051 0.119 0.199 0.233 0.080 0.478 0.136 44 (-0.788) (1.350) [-1.556] (8.315) (8.595) [-0.679] (-0.299) (2.347) [-1.973] (1.802) (1.812) [-0.942] (7.080) (7.456) [-0.798] (0.457) (9.730) [-2.184] (3.517) * *** *** Panel C: by payout nobs 33 35 CF/K -0.010 0.249 468 540 0.214 0.290 ** ** * * 42 44 -0.311 -0.079 132 131 -0.005 0.015 *** *** 468 506 0.245 0.131 105 113 0.461 0.345 359 0.111 *** ** *** (-0.097) (0.769) [-0.761] (7.248) (11.622) [-1.952] (-3.945) (-0.107) [-0.309] (-0.177) (0.198) [-0.249] (6.740) (2.179) [1.628] (13.545) (1.520) [0.505] (4.039) nobs 16 21 *** *** ** *** 314 318 27 26 86 87 *** ** * *** 386 265 *** 348 91 98 Country Denmark Finland France Germany Greece HongKong India Indonesia Ireland Italy Group NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat Panel A: by creditworthiness CF/K nobs 0.047 (1.189) 303 [1.713] ** 86 0.380 (2.109) ** 0.229 (2.873) *** 102 [0.764] 99 0.172 (2.820) *** 0.186 (1.286) 103 [-0.088] 427 0.181 (5.684) *** 0.239 (6.365) *** 440 [-1.169] 0.210 (5.834) *** 323 0.248 (7.276) *** 327 [-0.761] 0.185 (12.555) *** 1175 0.160 (9.476) *** 1171 [1.086] 484 0.273 (10.650) *** 0.148 (7.515) *** 483 [3.892] *** 0.058 (1.239) 336 0.174 (6.100) *** 331 [-2.105] ** 0.041 (1.072) 212 0.267 (6.373) *** 201 [-3.992] *** 0.031 (0.179) 59 0.242 (3.197) *** 62 [-1.101] 0.033 (0.734) 165 0.250 (2.342) ** 177 [-1.873] ** Panel B: by firm size CFK 0.265 0.481 0.124 0.194 0.389 0.161 0.180 0.235 0.202 0.244 0.144 0.197 0.145 0.239 0.198 0.154 0.108 0.138 0.215 0.125 0.299 45 (6.690) [-2.324] (3.244) (3.235) [2.333] (4.111) (2.884) [-1.360] (6.573) (8.867) [-0.601] (9.899) (7.297) [0.888] (1.330) (0.365) [0.231] (9.821) (10.511) [2.126] (6.894) (6.201) [0.867] (6.116) (5.569) [1.430] (2.213) (1.998) [-0.625] (2.840) (5.678) [-2.542] Panel C: by payout nobs 373 CF/K 0.469 101 109 0.401 0.078 121 127 0.512 0.041 503 525 0.216 0.217 373 404 0.248 0.182 20 20 0.171 0.164 *** *** ** *** *** 548 610 0.124 0.205 380 389 0.168 0.100 *** *** * ** * 256 273 0.284 0.052 64 66 0.339 0.074 *** *** *** 183 191 0.035 0.512 *** ** *** *** ** *** *** * *** *** *** *** (9.113) [-6.124] (6.487) (1.335) [3.803] (2.992) (0.911) [2.660] (9.087) (7.475) [-0.045] (8.203) (4.861) [1.366] (11.380) (8.285) [0.276] (4.835) (8.822) [-2.353] (4.850) (3.140) [1.437] (11.336) (1.290) [4.906] (4.496) (1.140) [2.651] (0.318) (8.930) [-3.847] *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** nobs 287 78 80 78 78 369 376 *** *** * *** *** 258 274 *** *** *** *** *** * *** 420 456 *** *** 897 897 320 334 249 186 54 52 *** *** *** 134 134 Country Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Netherlands NewZealand Norway Philippines Portugal Singapore SouthAfrica Group FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC Panel A: by creditworthiness CF/K nobs -0.004 (-0.147) 1672 0.097 (6.663) *** 1767 [-3.573] *** 0.230 (5.245) *** 234 0.403 (9.232) *** 232 [-2.802] *** 0.092 (4.593) *** 584 0.147 (5.476) *** 608 [-1.631] * 0.118 (1.149) 94 0.332 (10.214) *** 96 [-1.990] ** 0.103 (3.197) *** 150 0.102 (2.064) ** 167 [0.016] 0.663 (6.257) *** 54 0.104 (3.262) *** 65 [5.048] *** 0.314 (3.383) *** 66 0.115 (2.059) ** 71 [1.831] ** 0.028 (1.131) 84 0.415 (1.874) * 88 [-1.738] ** 0.273 (0.791) 27 0.434 (3.956) *** 29 [-0.445] 0.462 (9.888) *** 371 0.139 (5.052) *** 353 [5.963] *** 0.190 (6.159) *** 163 0.240 (7.887) *** 146 Panel B: by firm size CFK 0.132 0.051 0.321 0.327 0.135 0.123 0.325 0.018 0.055 0.164 0.148 0.506 0.196 0.857 0.023 0.195 0.424 -0.769 0.280 0.206 0.197 0.158 46 (9.443) (4.809) [4.596] (10.184) (9.699) [-0.122] (3.768) (11.291) [0.318] (9.495) (0.323) [4.623] (1.782) (5.135) [-2.472] (2.247) (5.669) [-3.235] (4.602) (2.422) [-1.855] (0.570) (2.263) [-1.814] (3.652) (-2.737) [3.924] (9.449) (9.492) [2.004] (6.655) (6.141) Panel C: by payout nobs 1912 1976 CF/K 0.134 0.179 258 276 0.305 0.356 *** *** 709 745 0.219 0.162 *** 122 128 0.293 0.344 179 184 0.110 0.165 69 72 0.141 0.095 88 94 0.213 0.096 125 132 -0.009 -0.193 29 31 0.306 -0.441 399 446 0.309 0.178 182 189 0.324 0.117 *** *** *** *** *** *** * *** *** ** *** *** *** ** ** ** ** *** ** *** *** *** ** *** *** (8.530) (10.300) [-1.939] (7.586) (8.632) [-0.872] (11.188) (5.627) [1.611] (10.420) (3.780) [-0.537] (2.237) (4.501) [-0.898] (2.246) (0.683) [0.306] (3.627) (1.027) [1.069] (-0.175) (-0.799) [0.741] (8.194) (-1.548) [2.601] (8.916) (4.258) [2.423] (12.569) (3.891) *** *** ** *** *** nobs 1443 1416 215 214 *** *** * *** *** 538 543 ** *** 100 104 ** 52 59 *** 55 58 128 93 138 79 * *** *** *** *** *** *** 12 14 307 316 159 155 Country Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey UK US Group t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat FC NFC t-stat Panel A: by creditworthiness CF/K nobs 0.233 [9.634] *** 309 0.682 (3.489) *** 49 0.144 (0.843) 54 [2.075] ** 140 0.150 (4.403) *** 0.227 (5.871) *** 137 [-1.495] * 0.281 (9.615) *** 134 0.155 (4.183) *** 146 [2.679] *** 457 0.131 (4.377) *** 0.523 (9.466) *** 471 [-6.246] *** 0.312 (7.015) *** 372 0.054 (2.044) ** 361 [4.990] *** 0.436 (3.072) *** 38 0.555 (1.599) 34 [-0.320] 0.185 (12.555) *** 1175 0.160 (9.476) *** 1171 [1.086] 0.162 (20.399) *** 4057 0.176 (23.961) *** 4026 [-1.312] * Panel B: by firm size CFK 0.159 0.522 0.394 0.083 0.289 0.313 0.307 0.252 0.166 0.092 0.067 0.158 0.233 0.188 0.122 0.159 0.206 47 [5.137] (2.584) (3.212) [0.538] (2.829) (9.597) [-4.923] (10.412) (7.502) [0.113] (7.971) (5.803) [2.007] (2.092) (3.520) [0.527] (1.036) (3.813) [-0.461] (16.258) (11.908) [4.213] (29.011) (39.520) [-6.295] Panel C: by payout nobs 371 51 56 CF/K 0.137 0.502 0.042 *** *** *** *** *** 158 171 0.231 -0.030 170 176 0.194 0.230 *** *** ** ** *** 561 587 0.596 0.266 385 393 0.068 0.469 50 57 0.105 0.359 1356 1432 0.171 0.164 5333 5615 0.182 0.154 *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** [4.102] (1.318) (0.352) [1.152] (7.120) (-0.762) [5.148] (7.107) (2.581) [-0.387] (13.081) (8.367) [5.940] (2.302) (7.796) [-5.991] (0.812) (3.563) [-1.541] (11.380) (8.285) [0.276] (34.499) (18.635) [2.818] *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** * *** *** *** *** *** nobs 314 39 44 120 127 127 130 484 442 318 310 43 47 897 897 6537 3462
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