Investment and the soft budget constraint in China
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
International Review of Economics & Finance
Publication Date
4-1-2010
Volume
19
Issue
2
First Page
219
Last Page
227
Keywords
Investment-cash flow sensitivities, Moral hazard, Soft budget constraints
Abstract
This paper examines the incentive effects of the soft budget constraint on the investment behavior of firms in general and on the investment-cash flow sensitivity in particular. To this end, we develop a simple model of moral hazard that takes the soft budget constraint into account. Within this moral hazard environment, we show that investment is positively related to the amount of internal funds. We further show that the presence of the soft budget constraint deteriorates the moral hazard problem, thereby making the investment level less sensitive to the amount of internal funds. This is the case irrespective of whether the soft budget constraint renders the firm more or less liquidity constrained. To test the model's empirical implications, we employ data of China's listed companies for the period from 1997 to 2003. We use the share of state ownership as a proxy for the severity of the soft budget constraint. We find strong evidence that firms with larger shares of state ownership exhibit lower investment-cash flow sensitivities than firms with smaller shares of state ownership.
DOI
10.1016/j.iref.2009.10.003
Print ISSN
10590560
E-ISSN
18738036
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Inc
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Chow, C. K. W., Song, F. M., & Wong, K. P. (2010). Investment and the soft budget constraint in China. International Review of Economics & Finance, 19(2), 219-227. doi: 10.1016/j.iref.2009.10.003