Balance Sheet Repair and Corporate Investment in Japan

Joong Kang

No 2014/141, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: We trace Japanese firms’ behavior over the last decades using aggregate corporate balance sheet data. Financial health of Japanese corporate sector has improved and firms paid back significant amount of debt and rebuilt their liquidity buffers. They also expanded abroad while the pace of corporate investment moderated. Regarding the latter, model estimates on aggregate corporate investment over the post bubble period show that expectation about future profitability, in particular medium-term demand outlook, has been the major driver, implying that a successful implementation of structural reforms could have positive impact even in the near term by improving the medium-term demand outlook.

Keywords: WP; investment; balance sheet; GDP; Japan; Capital; Growth; nonresidential investment; investment behavior; closing balance sheet account; securities investment; balance sheet repair; cost of capital; balance sheet development; cash holding; Corporate investment; Financial statements; Private investment; Asset valuation; Corporate sector; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21
Date: 2014-08-04
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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