Cross-border investments and uncertainty: Firm-level evidence

Rafael Cezar, Timothee Gigout and Fabien Tripier

Journal of International Money and Finance, 2020, vol. 108, issue C

Abstract: This paper studies the impact of uncertainty on cross-border investments. We build a data-set of firm-level outward Foreign Direct Investments between 2000 and 2015. We create a time and country varying measure of uncertainty based on the dispersion of idiosyncratic investment returns. An increase in uncertainty delays cross-border flows to the affected country. Yet, this average effect hides strong heterogeneity. Firms with low ex-ante performance durably reduce their foreign investments. Meanwhile high-performing firms increase their investments after the initial shock. We interpret these results as the evidence of a cleansing effect of uncertainty shocks among multinational firms in the presence of financial frictions.

Keywords: Uncertainty; Asymmetric uncertainty; FDI flows; FDI returns; Volatility; Multinational firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 F23 G10 G15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Cross-border Investments and Uncertainty: Firm-level Evidence (2020)
Working Paper: Cross-border Investments and Uncertainty Firm-level Evidence (2020)
Working Paper: Cross-border investments and uncertainty: Firm-level evidence (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:108:y:2020:i:c:s0261560620300991

DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2020.102159

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