R & D and Internal Finance: A Panel Study of Small Firms in High-Tech Industries
利用179家高科技小企业的面板数据，发现内部融资对研发支出有显著且经济上重要的正向影响，支持了资本市场不完美下内部现金流决定小企业研发速度的观点。
Since Joseph Schumpeter, economists have argued that internal finance should be an important determinant of R&D expenditures. Yet almost without exception, previous empirical studies have not found evidence of such a relation. Using newly available data, the authors investigate this puzzle with a panel of 179 small firms in high-tech industries. Under each estimation strategy they employ, the authors find an economically large and statistically significant relationship between R&D investment and internal finance. Their results are consistent with the view that, because of capital market imperfections, the flow of internal finance is the principal determinant of the rate at which small, high-tech firms acquire technology through R&D. Copyright 1994 by MIT Press.