Δοκίμια στην δυναμική ζήτηση κεφαλαίου και εργασίας : μια εμπειρική ανάλυση

Abstract

Recent research on determinants of firm-level fixed investment has stressed the importance of proxies for firms’ internal finance as explanatory variables, holding constant measures of firm opportunities or the cost of capital. Such studies have been based on departures from neoclassical investment models with perfect capital markets in the direction of models based on asymmetric information in financial markets. These departures build on insights from theoretical models of financial contracting under asymmetric information, using adverse selection and/or moral hazard examples, in which movements in internal funds predict movements in investment spending, holding constant investment opportunities. The purpose of this thesis is to model the impact of financial distress on the investment decisions of firms in Greece and in Europe. To do so, the thesis builds a dynamic investment model, where financial variables and real investment are linked in an attempt to explore the problem of imperfection in capital markets. A further step forward is to investigate potential asymmetries in agents’ investment decisions relative to the state of expectation highlighting the role of business cycle. In order to provide a full picture of the investment decision problem, apart from capital, we introduce the term of labour demand. In particular, we explore the potential effect on labour demand of capital market imperfections, labour market institutional rigidities in the form of union power, and the impact of uncertainty. We employ a dynamic panel data methodology, a GMM estimation technique, is used on a panel data set of Greek firms over the 1993-2001 period. In addition, a panel data set on a sectoral level for most of the continental European countries is also exploited for the period from 1987 to 2003.