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Review of Finance Vol. 24 No. 4 2020

Internal Capital Markets in Times of Crisis: The Benefit of Group Affiliation

Raffaele Santioni1; Fabio Schiantarelli2,3; Philip E. Strahan2,4

1 Bank of Italy · 2 Boston College · 3 IZA · 4 NBER

Abstract

Firms affiliated with business groups survive the stress of the global financial and euro crises better than unaffiliated firms. Using granular data from Italy, we show that better performance stems partly from access to an internal capital market, as the survival value of group-affiliated firms increases with group-wide cash flow. Internal cash transfers increase when banks’ health deteriorates, with funds moving from cash-rich to cash-poor firms and, some evidence suggests, to firms with favorable investment opportunities. Internal capital markets’ role thus increases when external markets (banks) are distressed.

DOI
10.1093/rof/rfz020
Volume
24
Issue
4
Pages
773-811
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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