Financial Constraints on German Firms after the Crisis: Evidence from Threshold Panel Estimation
研究了2006-2012年间德国企业（尤其是中小企业）的融资约束，发现高负债企业的现金流对投资的影响是低负债企业的近两倍，而企业规模不能解释这种差异。
Abstract This article studies the existence and magnitude of financial investment constraints in Germany between 2006 and 2012 with a special emphasis on small and medium‐sized firms. The core contention is that the sensitivity of the investment rate to the cash flow rate is a function of a firm's financial position contributing to its access to external finance. The application of a nonlinear panel threshold model reveals that the marginal effect of the cash flow rate on the investment rate is almost twice as strong for ‘high debt’ firms compared to ‘low debt’ firms. This result holds for six out of seven balance sheet threshold variables. For a single specification, the results reveal a non‐monotonic relationship between the cash flow rate and investment rate. Firm size, however, does not explain differences in the cash‐flow‐investment nexus.