Downturn In Investment Research Articles

Asymmetric effects of uncertainty on investment: Empirical evidence from India

Investment is envisaged as a prerequisite for improving productivity and growth in any economy. In India, investment has decelerated during the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008, especially after 2011–12, which has spurred a heated discussion regarding causes accountable for elongated slowdown. To this end, we empirically examine the causal nexus between investment and its covariates in an asymmetric framework. The present study finds asymmetric cointegration along with short-run impact asymmetry, long-run reaction asymmetry, and adjustment asymmetry between investment and its covariates. Furthermore, evidence of asymmetric Granger causality is also established. Our study's conclusions have important policy outcomes to combat the economy's downturn in investment.

СТРУКТУРНІ ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЇ ІННОВАЦІЙНОГО ПОТЕНЦІАЛУ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ: ПОБУДОВА МЕХАНІЗМУ ЇХ УПРАВЛІННЯ

The article determines that structural transformations of the innovative potential of industrial energy enterprises are aimed at overcoming the innovation and investment downturn in the period of prolonged crisis and depression, structural restructuring of production and financial recovery of production. They include the development of innovation and investment projects as part of strategic planning. It is concluded that an effective innovation and investment strategy should involve the attraction of financial resources on terms and conditions acceptable to the crisis enterprise, and in volumes that ensure the planned dynamics of its progressive development.The analysis of an innovation and investment strategy as a set of operations carried out in a logical sequence to achieve a certain result should ensure its economic security in a crisis. This is done by assessing the economic risk of innovation, identifying measures to prevent the negative impact of the crisis on the strategic project at the conceptual stage, by developing innovative measures to prevent the development of the investment crisis and ensuring the economic security of creditors at the investment stage, neutralizing the negative impact and possible losses at the stage of exploitation. This approach allows to provide the given level of durability of innovative potential on critical parameters through reduction of risk of their realization and increase of viability. Development of measures for structural transformation of innovative potential also implies the formation of scenarios and options for the implementation of innovative projects in order to provide guaranteed sources of financial resources.

Investment Hollowing Out

Investment in physical capital collapsed during the Great Recession, and while growth subsequently resumed, the capital stock remains below trend (Hall in Quantifying the lasting harm to the US economy from the financial crisis, NBER Macroeconomics Annual, Bureau of Economic Research, 2014). We explore firm-level data on investment and document that investment fell relative to fundamentals at the turn of the millennium—well before the Great Recession. This downturn in investment coincides with a shift in employment toward services and cognitive skills—the “polarization” described by Autor et al. (Am Econ Rev 96(2):189–194, 2006), as a possible consequence of off-shoring and automation. An analogous sorting of firms into industries shows a shift of investment toward spatially “grounded” industries, such as energy and telecommunications, from which capital cannot be relocated. Investment shifts away from production sectors, such as manufacturing, which can be relocated. While high-tech firms grow in number and value, this growth is associated with a flat share of capital investment. For these sectors, we document a shift toward intangible, rather than physical, capital. The “hollowing out” of investment, like labor, carves out manufacturing and production sectors, leaving grounded industries that are less susceptible to off-shoring and cognitively intensive industries that are growing in intangible, rather than fixed, capital.

Disentangling India's Investment Slowdown

This paper documents the recent slowdown in investment in India and explores its underlying causes. The sharp investment deceleration has sparked an intense debate about the role of interest rates, as well as business confidence and economic policy uncertainty. Our results suggest that while explaining aggregate investment activity better than nominal interest rates, real interest rates account for only one quarter of the explained investment downturn. In addition, standard macro-financial variables do not fully explain the recent investment slump. Using a new measure of economic policy uncertainty, the results suggest that heightened uncertainty and deteriorating business confidence have played a key role in the recent investment slowdown.

Disentangling India’s Investment Slowdown

This paper documents the recent slowdown in investment in India and explores its underlying causes. The sharp investment deceleration has sparked an intense debate about the role of interest rates, as well as business confidence and economic policy uncertainty. Our results suggest that while explaining aggregate investment activity better than nominal interest rates, real interest rates account for only one quarter of the explained investment downturn. In addition, standard macro-financial variables do not fully explain the recent investment slump. Using a new measure of economic policy uncertainty, the results suggest that heightened uncertainty and deteriorating business confidence have played a key role in the recent investment slowdown.

Impact of public policy uncertainty on renewable energy investment: Wind power and the production tax credit

It is generally understood that the pattern of repeated expiration and short-term renewal of the federal production tax credit (PTC) causes a boom–bust cycle in wind power plant investment in the US. This on–off pattern is detrimental to the wind industry, since ramp-up and ramp-down costs are high, and players are deterred from making long-term investments. It is often assumed that the severe downturn in investment during “off” years implies that wind power is unviable without the PTC. This assumption turns out to be unsubstantiated: this paper demonstrates that it is not the absence of the PTC that causes the investment downturn during “off” years, but rather the uncertainty over its return. Specifically, it is the dynamic of power purchase agreement (PPA) negotiations in the face of PTC renewal uncertainty that drives investment volatility. With contract negotiations prevalent in the renewable energy industry, this finding suggests that reducing uncertainty is a crucial component of effective renewable energy policy. The PTC as currently structured is not the only means, existing or potential, for encouraging wind power investment. Using data from a survey of energy professionals, various policy instruments are compared in terms of their perceived stability for supporting long-term investment.

Impact of Policy Uncertainty on Renewable Energy Investment: Wind Power and PTC

It is generally understood that the pattern of repeated expiration and short-term renewal of the federal production tax credit (PTC) causes a boom-bust cycle in wind power plant investment in the U.S. This on-off pattern is detrimental to the wind industry, since ramp-up and ramp-down costs are high, and players are deterred from making long-term investments. It is widely assumed that the severe downturn in investment during off years implies that wind power is unviable without the PTC. This assumption turns out to be unsubstantiated: this paper demonstrates that it is not the absence of the PTC that causes the investment downturn during off years, but rather the uncertainty over its return. Specifically, it is the dynamic of power purchase agreement (PPA) negotiations in the face of PTC renewal uncertainty that drives investment volatility. With contract negotiations prevalent in the renewable energy industry, this finding suggests that reducing regulatory uncertainty is a crucial component of effective renewable energy policy. The PTC as currently structured is not the only means, existing or potential, for encouraging wind power investment. Using data from a survey of energy professionals, various alternative policy incentives are considered and compared in terms of their perceived reliability for supporting long-term investment.

The World Economy

The global economy expanded by 5.3 per cent in 2006, one of the fastest rates of growth in the past 35 years. We project further expansions of 5 per cent this year and 4¾ per cent in 2008. The key risks to the forecast that we highlight in this Review relate to global housing markets and the current stance of monetary policy. The US economy is restrained by the recent correction in its housing market, which is expected to continue to weigh on the economy through 2008. There is some concern that the housing investment downturn may spread to other economies, and in this report we explore the areas most at risk to such a contagion. We also consider the recent volatility in the oil price, which makes it difficult for monetary authorities to distinguish signal from noise. If too much emphasis is placed on what subsequently turns out to be noise, policy settings could turn out to be overly lax or stringent.

The Boom and the Slump: a Causal Account of the 1990s/2000s and the 1920s/1930s

Not all booms are alike, nor are slumps. The institutions and the shocks are never exactly the same. Yet the late 1990s boom, and its unwinding, strikingly parallel the boom of the roaring 1920s, the deep decline into the early 1930s andonly a partial rebound. Both experiences began with an investment boom, then a downturn in investment while consumption held up. Economic activity closely tracked investment. The realizations of extraordinary productivity gains were present in the problematic and incomplete recovery of the 1930s, which suggests the possibility that return to the medium‐term natural rate of unemployment may be a rather long process. I expect the rest of the decade to resemble the rest of the 1930s – a limited recovery with investment and employment below historical norms.