Leverage over the Firm Life Cycle, Firm Growth, and Aggregate Fluctuations

Emin Dinlersoz, Henry Hyatt, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan and Veronika Penciakova
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Veronika Penciakova: https://www.atlantafed.org/research/economists/penciakova-veronika.aspx

No 2019-18, FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract: We study the leverage of U.S. firms over their life cycles and the connection between firm leverage, firm growth, and aggregate shocks. We construct a new dataset that combines private and public firms' balance sheets with firm-level data from U.S. Census Bureau's Longitudinal Business Database for the period 2005-12. Public and private firms exhibit different leverage dynamics over their life cycles. Firm age and size are systematically related to leverage for private firms but not for public firms. We show that private firms, but not public ones, deleveraged during the Great Recession and that this deleveraging is associated with a reduction in firm revenue and employment growth. Exploiting sectoral variation, we find that the leverage dynamics of firms is also relevant for aggregate fluctuations.

Keywords: leverage; firm dynamics; firm growth; firm life-cycle; financial constraints; borrowing limits; short-term debt; aggregate shocks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E23 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2019-11-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cfn, nep-fdg, nep-mac, nep-sbm and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Leverage over the Firm Life-Cycle, Firm Growth, and Aggregate Fluctuations (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedawp:2019-18

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DOI: 10.29338/wp2019-18

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