The U-Shaped Investment Curve: Theory and Evidence
分析内部资金如何影响企业投资，发现两者呈U型关系：内部资金极低时投资随资金减少而下降，资金充裕时投资随资金增加而上升。研究修正了传统观点，有助于解释实证文献中的矛盾发现。
Abstract We analyze how the availability of internal funds affects a firm's investment. We show that under fairly standard assumptions, the relation is U-shaped: investment increases monotonically with internal funds if they are large but decreases if they are very low. We discuss the tradeoff that generates the U-shape, and argue that models predicting an always increasing relation are based on restrictive assumptions. Using a large data set, we find strong empirical support for our predictions. Our results qualify conventional wisdom about the effects of financial constraints on investment behavior, and help to explain seemingly conflicting findings in the empirical literature.