Global Capital Flows and Financing Constraints

Ann Harrison, Inessa Love and Margaret McMillan

No 8887, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Firms often cite financing constraints as one of their primary obstacles to investment. Global capital flows, by bringing in scarce capital, may ease host-country firms' financing constraints. However, if incoming foreign investors borrow heavily from domestic basnks, direct foreign investment (DFI) may exacerbate financing constraints by crowding host country firms out of domestic capital markets. Combininb a unique cross-country firm-level panel with time-series data on restrictions on international transactions and capital flows, we find that different measures of global flows are associated with a reduction in firm-level financing constraints. First, we show that one type of capital inflow--DFI--is associated with a reduction in financing constraints. Second, we test whether restrictions on international transactions affect firms' financing constraints. Our results suggest that only one type of restriction--those on capital account transactions--negatively affect firms' financing constraints. We also show that multinational firms are not financially constrained and do not appear to be sensitive to the level of DFI. This implies that DFI eases financing constraints for non-multinational firms. Finally, we show that DFI only eases financing constraints in the non-G7 countries.

JEL-codes: F2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ifn
Note: ITI
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published as Harrison, Ann E., Inessa Love and Margaret S. McMillan. "Global Capital Flows And Financing Constraints," Journal of Development Economics, 2004, v75(1,Oct), 269-301.

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Chapter: Global capital flows and financing constraints (2022)
Journal Article: Global capital flows and financing constraints (2004)
Working Paper: Global capital flows and financing constraints (2002)
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