Explaining the Recent Slump in Investment: the Role of Expected Demand and Uncertainty

M. Bussi Re, Laurent Ferrara and Juliana Milovich ()
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Matthieu Bussière

Working papers from Banque de France

Abstract: The recent weakness in business investment among advanced economies has revived interest in investment models and opened a debate on the main drivers of the investment slump and what the policy response should be if any. In particular, it is essential to assess precisely whether the investment slump stems mostly from weak aggregate demand, financial constraints or uncertainty, as these different explanatory factors have different policy implications. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the main determinants of business investment for a panel of 22 advanced economies. The main contribution is that we present results from an augmented accelerator model using vintage forecast data as a measure of expected demand and show that this forward-looking variable goes a long way in explaining the weakness in investment since the Global Financial Crisis. Moreover, our results also underline the importance of uncertainty, whereas measures of capital cost seem to play a more modest role. Finally, we show that systematically over-optimistic GDP growth forecasts since 2008 have supported business investment to a large extent.

Keywords: Business investment; aggregate demand; expectations; uncertainty; financial frictions; macroeconomic forecasts. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 D84 E22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 72 pages
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-for and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (48)

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Journal Article: Explaining the recent slump in investment: the role of expected demand and uncertainty (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bfr:banfra:571

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