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Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 8 No. 2 2002

Volatility of the interest rate, debt and firm investment: Dutch evidence

Hong Bo; Elmer Sterken1

1 SOM EEF

open access

Abstract

This paper analyzes the joint impact of the interest rate volatility and debt on firm investment. We derive an investment model taking account of the risk attitude of the owners of the firm. Using a panel of Dutch listed firms in the period of 1984–1995, we find that the cross-effect of the interest rate volatility and debt on investment is positive. This effect is more important for highly indebted firms than for less-indebted firms. The results are robust to different measures for the interest rate volatility. We interpret this finding by the tradeoff between the effect of the interest burden and the effect of debt revaluation.

DOI
10.1016/s0929-1199(01)00031-1
Volume
8
Issue
2
Pages
179-193
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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