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Journal of Finance Vol. 69 No. 3 2014

The Business Cycle, Investor Sentiment, and Costly External Finance

R. David McLean; Mengxin Zhao1

1 Yan'an University

Abstract

The recent financial crisis shows that financial markets can impact the real economy. We investigate whether access to finance typically time‐varies and, if so, what are the real effects. Consistent with time‐varying external finance costs, both investment and employment are less sensitive to Tobin's q and more sensitive to cash flow during recessions and low investor sentiment periods. Share issuance plays a bigger role than debt issuance in causing these effects. Alternative tests that do not rely on q and cash flow sensitivities suggest that recessions and low sentiment increase external finance costs, thereby limiting investment and employment.

DOI
10.1111/jofi.12047
Volume
69
Issue
3
Pages
1377-1409
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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