Ownership, Concentration, and Investment

Abstract

The US business sector has underinvested relative to profits, funding costs, and Tobin's Q since the early 2000s. Building on prior work, we argue that decreasing competition, rising intangibles, and tightening governance explain, respectively, about one-half, one-third, and one-sixth of the investment gap. In particular, quasi-indexer ownership appears to lower investment, and this effect is stronger in noncompetitive industries.