Investment Rates (investment + rate)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The Effect of Venture Capital Financing on the Sensitivity to Cash Flow of Firm's Investments

EUROPEAN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2010
Fabio Bertoni
G32; D92; G23 Abstract This work studies the effect of venture capital (VC) financing on firms' investments in a longitudinal sample of 379 Italian unlisted new-technology-based firms (NTBFs) observed over the 10-year period from 1994 to 2003. We distinguish the effects of VC financing according to the type of investor: independent VC (IVC) funds and corporate VC (CVC) investors. Previous studies argue that NTBFs are the firms most likely to be financially constrained. The technology-intensive nature of their activity and their lack of a track record increase adverse selection and moral hazard problems. Moreover, most of their assets are firm-specific or intangible and hence cannot be pledged as collateral. In accordance with this view, we show that the investment rate of NTBFs is strongly positively correlated with their current cash flows. We also find that after receiving VC financing, NTBFs increase their investment rate independently of the type of VC investor. However, the investments of CVC-backed firms remain sensitive to shocks in cash flows, whereas IVC-backed firms exhibit a low and statistically not significant investment,cash flow sensitivity that we interpret as a signal of the removal of financial constraints. [source]


Optimal and sub-optimal control in Dengue epidemics

OPTIMAL CONTROL APPLICATIONS AND METHODS, Issue 2 2001
Marco Antonio Leonel Caetano
Abstract This work concerns the application of the optimal control theory to Dengue epidemics. The dynamics of this insect-borne disease is modelled as a set of non-linear ordinary differential equations including the effect of educational campaigns organized to motivate the population to break the reproduction cycle of the mosquitoes by avoiding the accumulation of still water in open-air recipients. The cost functional is such that it reflects a compromise between actual financial spending (in insecticides and educational campaigns) and the population health (which can be objectively measured in terms of, for instance, treatment costs and loss of productivity). The optimal control problem is solved numerically using a multiple shooting method. However, the optimal control policy is difficult to implement by the health authorities because it is not practical to adjust the investment rate continuously in time. Therefore, a suboptimal control policy is computed assuming, as the admissible set, only those controls which are piecewise constant. The performance achieved by the optimal control and the sub-optimal control policies are compared with the cases of control using only insecticides when Breteau Index is greater or equal to 5 and the case of no-control. The results show that the sub-optimal policy yields a substantial reduction in the cost, in terms of the proposed functional, and is only slightly inferior to the optimal control policy. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Investment in Fixed Capital Stock: Testing for the Impact of Sectoral and Systemic Uncertainty*

OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 2 2004
Johannes Fedderke
Abstract This paper applies current theory recognizing the irreversibility of investment, in order to test for the impact of uncertainty on investment expenditure for a middle income country. The contribution of the paper is unique in two respects. First, it employs dynamic heterogeneous panel estimation techniques not previously applied to investment functions. Secondly, it explicitly tests for the impact of both sectoral and systemic uncertainty on investment expenditure. We find that both sectoral (as measured by output volatility) and systemic uncertainty (as measured by political instability) have a negative impact on investment rates in a middle income country context. Liquidity constraints and growth in total factor productivity are found to have no impact on investment, while trade liberalization has the impact predicted by Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory. Finally, we find complementarity effects between physical capital and skilled human capital, suggesting that South African educational policies may have hampered investment in physical capital as well as the growth performance of the economy. Policy implications emphasize the importance of lowering uncertainty for investors, and the need for sound human capital investment. [source]


Financing Constraints and Investment Decline in Mexico

THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 1 2000
Talan B.
To what extent can financing constraints, which have been so central to foreign-debt-related explanations of investment decline in heavily indebted economies, account for low investment rates in Mexico after 1982? In order to investigate the implications of the financing constraints hypothesis on investment decisions, this study employs a cost-of-adjustment model of investment and annual panel data of Mexican manufacturing industries covering the period 1970,90. It is found that some of the debt crisis effects on investment, identified in the earlier literature, may be due to binding financing constraints in Mexico. [source]


Is the Export-led Growth Hypothesis Enough to Account for China's Growth?

CHINA AND WORLD ECONOMY, Issue 4 2010
María Jesús Herrerias
F43; O40; O47; O53 Abstract One of the missing pieces preventing us from understanding recent Chinese economic development is the role played by openness and capital accumulation in this process. The question is whether the sharp economic growth that the Chinese economy has experienced is another case of export-led growth due to the open-door policy or whether, on the contrary, this growth has been caused by high domestic savings and investment rates (and the consequent capital accumulation). To answer this question, we employed an empirical framework of the cointegrated vector autoregressive model. The empirical results show that both investment (in physical capital and R&D) and exports, as well as the exchange rate policy, are relevant factors in explaining China's long-run economic growth over the past 4 decades. [source]