Policy uncertainty and investment in Spain

Daniel Dejuan-Bitria and Corinna Ghirelli

No 1848, Working Papers from Banco de España

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of policy uncertainty on firms’ investment decisions. We focus on Spain for the period 1998-2014. To measure policy-related uncertainty, we use a new macroeconomic indicator constructed for this country. We find strong evidence that policy uncertainty reduces corporate investment. Furthermore, the heterogeneous results suggest that the adverse effect of policy uncertainty is particularly relevant for highly vulnerable firms. In particular, non-exporting firms, small and medium enterprises, as well as firms in poorer financial condition are shown to decrease investment significantly more than their counterparts. Overall, these results are consistent with the hypotheses that policy-related uncertainty reduces corporate investment through increases in precautionary savings or to worsening of credit conditions.

Keywords: corporate investment; policy uncertainty; financial frictions. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D80 E22 G18 G31 G38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2018-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn, nep-eec and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bde:wpaper:1848

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