Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v62y2022icp552-565.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the heterogeneity of the long-term leverage-growth relationship: A cross-country analysis of manufacturing firms

Author

Listed:
  • Cattaruzzo, Sebastiano
  • Teruel, Mercedes
Abstract
Despite a great deal of studies, the relationship between firm leverage and its impact on growth remains still unclear. We offer an analytical framework, which based on a comprehensive literature review and of related empirical reasoning, helps explaining the long-term leverage and firm growth nexus. Both the theoretical views and empirical evidence are mixed, and the lack of consensus may be the result of inconsistent estimation techniques and of the dual interpretation that firm leverage has. Analysing debt from credit institutions to firms in France, Italy, and Spain, and observed from 2010 to 2016, we bring a selection framework to trial. The comparative perspective seeks the establishment of regularities, while the use of a dynamic quantile panel estimator unravels its heterogeneity. Strong non-linearities are detected, but the selection framework finds no support. On the contrary, only firms in the lowest-growing deciles of the growth distributions benefit consistently from leverage.

Suggested Citation

  • Cattaruzzo, Sebastiano & Teruel, Mercedes, 2022. "On the heterogeneity of the long-term leverage-growth relationship: A cross-country analysis of manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 552-565.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:62:y:2022:i:c:p:552-565
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2022.06.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X2200100X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2022.06.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guariglia, Alessandra & Liu, Xiaoxuan & Song, Lina, 2011. "Internal finance and growth: Microeconometric evidence on Chinese firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 79-94, September.
    2. Coricelli, Fabrizio & Driffield, Nigel & Pal, Sarmistha & Roland, Isabelle, 2012. "When does leverage hurt productivity growth? A firm-level analysis," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1674-1694.
    3. Gita Gopinath & Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan & Loukas Karabarbounis & Carolina Villegas-Sanchez, 2017. "Capital Allocation and Productivity in South Europe," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1915-1967.
    4. Bartelsman, Eric & Dobbelaere, Sabien & Peters, Bettina, 2013. "Allocation of Human Capital and Innovation at the Frontier: Firm-Level Evidence on Germany and the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 7540, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Giulio Bottazzi & Angelo Secchi & Federico Tamagni, 2014. "Financial constraints and firm dynamics," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 99-116, January.
    6. Kaiser, Ulrich, 2009. "Patents and profit rates," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 79-80, August.
    7. N. Berger, Allen & F. Udell, Gregory, 1998. "The economics of small business finance: The roles of private equity and debt markets in the financial growth cycle," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 613-673, August.
    8. Coad, Alex, 2010. "Neoclassical vs evolutionary theories of financial constraints: Critique and prospectus," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 206-218, August.
    9. Klapper, Leora & Laeven, Luc & Rajan, Raghuram, 2004. "Business environment and firm entry : Evidence from international data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3232, The World Bank.
    10. Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Horváth, Bálint L. & Huizinga, Harry, 2017. "How does long-term finance affect economic volatility?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 41-59.
    11. Nickell, Stephen & Nicolitsas, Daphne, 1999. "How does financial pressure affect firms?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 1435-1456, August.
    12. Binks, Martin R & Ennew, Christine T, 1996. "Growing Firms and the Credit Constraint," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 17-25, February.
    13. Giulio Bottazzi & Angelo Secchi & Federico Tamagni, 2014. "Financial constraints and firm dynamics," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 99-116, January.
    14. Galvao Jr., Antonio F., 2011. "Quantile regression for dynamic panel data with fixed effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 164(1), pages 142-157, September.
    15. Mata, José & Woerter, Martin, 2013. "Risky innovation: The impact of internal and external R&D strategies upon the distribution of returns," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 495-501.
    16. Massimo Molinari & Silvia Giannangeli & Giorgio Fagiolo, 2016. "Financial Structure and Corporate Growth: Evidence from Italian Panel Data," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 45(3), pages 303-325, November.
    17. Giulio Bottazzi & Angelo Secchi & Federico Tamagni, 2014. "Financial constraints and firm dynamics," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 99-116, January.
    18. Paulo Macas Nunes & Tiago Neves Sequeira & Zelia Serrasqueiro, 2007. "Firms' leverage and labour productivity: a quantile approach in Portuguese firms," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(14), pages 1783-1788.
    19. Caterina Giannetti, 2016. "Debt concentration and performance of European firms," Discussion Papers 2016/211, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    20. Yuji Honjo & Nobuyuki Harada, 2006. "SME Policy, Financial Structure and Firm Growth: Evidence From Japan," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 289-300, December.
    21. Mariana Mazzucato & Stuart Parris, 2015. "High-growth firms in changing competitive environments: the US pharmaceutical industry (1963 to 2002)," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 145-170, January.
    22. Lilas Demmou & Guido Franco & Irina Stefanescu, 2020. "Productivity and finance: the intangible assets channel - a firm level analysis," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1596, OECD Publishing.
    23. Michael Faulkender & Mitchell A. Petersen, 2006. "Does the Source of Capital Affect Capital Structure?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(1), pages 45-79.
    24. Marco Capasso & Tania Treibich & Bart Verspagen, 2015. "The medium-term effect of R&D on firm growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 39-62, June.
    25. Paolo Colla & Filippo Ippolito & Kai Li, 2013. "Debt Specialization," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 2117-2141, October.
    26. Levine, Oliver & Warusawitharana, Missaka, 2021. "Finance and productivity growth: Firm-level evidence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 91-107.
    27. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    28. Manohar Singh & Sheri Faircloth, 2005. "The impact of corporate debt on long term investment and firm performance," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(8), pages 875-883.
    29. Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo & Laranjeira, Bruno & Weisbenner, Scott, 2012. "Corporate Debt Maturity and the Real Effects of the 2007 Credit Crisis," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 1(1), pages 3-58, January.
    30. Lang, Larry & Ofek, Eli & Stulz, Rene M., 1996. "Leverage, investment, and firm growth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 3-29, January.
    31. García-Quevedo, José & Segarra-Blasco, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes, 2018. "Financial constraints and the failure of innovation projects," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 127-140.
    32. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç‐Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2005. "Financial and Legal Constraints to Growth: Does Firm Size Matter?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 137-177, February.
    33. Thomas F. Cooley & Vincenzo Quadrini, 2001. "Financial Markets and Firm Dynamics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1286-1310, December.
    34. Susan Coleman, 2006. "Capital Structure in Small Manufacturing Firms: Evidence from the Data," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 11(3), pages 105-122, Fall.
    35. Keith D Brouthers, 2002. "Institutional, Cultural and Transaction Cost Influences on Entry Mode Choice and Performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(2), pages 203-221, June.
    36. Alex Coad & Rekha Rao, 2006. "Innovation and market value: a quantile regression analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 15(13), pages 1-10.
    37. Mihir Desai & Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner, 2003. "Institutions, Capital Constraints and Entrepreneurial Firm Dynamics: Evidence from Europe," NBER Working Papers 10165, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    38. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 2006. "Small and medium-size enterprises: Access to finance as a growth constraint," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2931-2943, November.
    39. Sorin Gabriel Anton, 2019. "Leverage and firm growth: an empirical investigation of gazelles from emerging Europe," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 209-232, March.
    40. Coad, Alex & Segarra, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes, 2016. "Innovation and firm growth: Does firm age play a role?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 387-400.
    41. Ross Brown & Suzanne Mawson & Colin Mason, 2017. "Myth-busting and entrepreneurship policy: the case of high growth firms," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(5-6), pages 414-443, May.
    42. Mark Heil, 2018. "Finance And Productivity: A Literature Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1355-1383, December.
    43. Andrea Mina & Henry Lahr & Alan Hughes, 2013. "The demand and supply of external finance for innovative firms," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(4), pages 869-901, August.
    44. Coad, Alex & Rao, Rekha, 2008. "Innovation and firm growth in high-tech sectors: A quantile regression approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 633-648, May.
    45. Matthias Duschl, 2016. "Firm dynamics and regional resilience: an empirical evolutionary perspective," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(5), pages 867-883.
    46. Buchinsky, Moshe, 1994. "Changes in the U.S. Wage Structure 1963-1987: Application of Quantile Regression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 405-458, March.
    47. Laurent Weill, 2008. "Leverage and Corporate Performance: Does Institutional Environment Matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 251-265, March.
    48. Huynh, Kim P. & Petrunia, Robert J., 2010. "Age effects, leverage and firm growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1003-1013, May.
    49. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    50. Tom Vanacker & Sophie Manigart, 2010. "Pecking order and debt capacity considerations for high-growth companies seeking financing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 53-69, July.
    51. Konings, Jozef & Rizov, Marian & Vandenbussche, Hylke, 2003. "Investment and financial constraints in transition economies: micro evidence from Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 253-258, February.
    52. Aivazian, Varouj A. & Ge, Ying & Qiu, Jiaping, 2005. "The impact of leverage on firm investment: Canadian evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 277-291, March.
    53. Molinari, Massimo, 2013. "Joint analysis of the non-linear debt–growth nexus and cash-flow sensitivity: New evidence from Italy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 34-44.
    54. Martin Falk, 2012. "Quantile estimates of the impact of R&D intensity on firm performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 19-37, July.
    55. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    56. Ferrando, Annalisa & Altomonte, Carlo & Blank, Sven & Meinen, Philipp & Iudice, Matteo & Felt, Marie-Hélène & Neugebauer, Katja & Siedschlag, Iulia, 2015. "Assessing the financial and financing conditions of firms in Europe: the financial module in CompNet," Working Paper Series 1836, European Central Bank.
    57. Rahaman, Mohammad M., 2011. "Access to financing and firm growth," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 709-723, March.
    58. Ferrando, Annalisa & Pál, Rozália, 2006. "Financing constraints and firms' cash policy in the euro area," Working Paper Series 642, European Central Bank.
    59. Nickell, Stephen & Nicolitsas, Daphne & Dryden, Neil, 1997. "What makes firms perform well?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(3-5), pages 783-796, April.
    60. Mari Avarmaa & Aaro Hazak & Kadri Männasoo, 2013. "Does leverage affect labour productivity? A comparative study of local and multinational companies of the Baltic countries," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 252-275, April.
    61. Agust� Segarra & Mercedes Teruel, 2011. "Productivity and R&D sources: evidence for Catalan firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(8), pages 727-748, September.
    62. Anderson, T. W. & Hsiao, Cheng, 1982. "Formulation and estimation of dynamic models using panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 47-82, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sebastiano Cattaruzzo & Agustí Segarra-Blasco & Mercedes Teruel, 2024. "Firm-level contributions to the R&D intensity distribution: evidence and policy implications," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 45-65, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Coad, Alex & Segarra, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes, 2016. "Innovation and firm growth: Does firm age play a role?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 387-400.
    2. Canarella, Giorgio & Miller, Stephen M., 2018. "The determinants of growth in the U.S. information and communication technology (ICT) industry: A firm-level analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 259-271.
    3. Molinari, Massimo, 2013. "Joint analysis of the non-linear debt–growth nexus and cash-flow sensitivity: New evidence from Italy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 34-44.
    4. Montresor, Sandro & Vezzani, Antonio, 2015. "The production function of top R&D investors: Accounting for size and sector heterogeneity with quantile estimations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 381-393.
    5. SooGeun Ahn & Jeewhan Yoon & YoungJun Kim, 2018. "The innovation activities of small and medium-sized enterprises and their growth: quantile regression analysis and structural equation modeling," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 316-342, April.
    6. Daisuke Tsuruta, 2015. "Leverage and firm performance of small businesses: evidence from Japan," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 385-410, February.
    7. Peng Bin & Xiaolan Chen & Andrea Fracasso & Chiara Tomasi, 2020. "Firm employment growth in China: The role of marketization and regional economic factors," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 402-439, March.
    8. Sorin Gabriel Anton, 2019. "Leverage and firm growth: an empirical investigation of gazelles from emerging Europe," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 209-232, March.
    9. Cristina Guillamón & Enrique Moral-Benito & Sergio Puente, 2017. "High growth firms in employment and productivity: dynamic interactions and the role of financial constraints?," Working Papers 1718, Banco de España.
    10. Daniele Moschella & Federico Tamagni & Xiaodan Yu, 2019. "Persistent high-growth firms in China’s manufacturing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 573-594, March.
    11. Bartelsman, Eric & Dobbelaere, Sabien & Peters, Bettina, 2013. "Allocation of Human Capital and Innovation at the Frontier: Firm-Level Evidence on Germany and the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 7540, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Khémiri, Wafa & Noubbigh, Hédi, 2021. "Joint analysis of the non-linear debt-growth nexus and capital account liberalization: New evidence from sub-Saharan region," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 614-626.
    13. Yu-Yen Ku & Tze-Yu Yen, 2016. "Heterogeneous Effect of Financial Leverage on Corporate Performance: A Quantile Regression Analysis of Taiwanese Companies," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(03), pages 1-33, September.
    14. Falavigna, Greta & Ippoliti, Roberto, 2023. "SMEs’ behavior under financial constraints: An empirical investigation on the legal environment and the substitution effect with tax arrears," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Francesco Aiello & Graziella Bonanno & Stefania P. S. Rossi, 2020. "How firms finance innovation. Further empirics from European SMEs," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(4), pages 689-714, November.
    16. Guariglia, Alessandra & Liu, Xiaoxuan & Song, Lina, 2011. "Internal finance and growth: Microeconometric evidence on Chinese firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 79-94, September.
    17. Anoosheh Rostamkalaei & Mark Freel, 2016. "The cost of growth: small firms and the pricing of bank loans," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 255-272, February.
    18. Pietro Santoleri, 2020. "Innovation and job creation in (high-growth) new firms," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 29(3), pages 731-756.
    19. Annalisa Ferrando & Alessandro Ruggieri, 2018. "Financial constraints and productivity: Evidence from euro area companies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 257-282, July.
    20. Padmaja Mundakkad, 2018. "Firms' leverage and labour productivity: a quantile regression approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(4), pages 2331-2344.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Firm growth; Heterogeneity; Leverage; Long-term debt; Quantile;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:62:y:2022:i:c:p:552-565. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.