Investment, Credit Rationing, and the Soft Budget Constraint: Evidence from Czech Panel Data
利用1992-98年捷克工业企业数据，发现外资企业投资最多、合作社最少，私营与国企投资无显著差异，且合作社和小企业面临信贷配给；结合不良贷款和高投资率，表明大型国企和私营企业存在软预算约束，动态模型支持企业开始追求利润最大化。
Strategic restructuring of firms through investment is key to a transition from plan to market. Using data on industrial firms in the Czech Republic during 1992-98, we find that (a) foreign owned companies invest the most and cooperatives the least, (b) private firms do not invest more than state-owned ones and (c) cooperatives and small firms are credit rationed. Given the large volume of non-performing bank loans to firms and the high rate of investment of large state owned and private firms, our findings also suggest that these firms operate under a soft budget constraint. Estimates of a dynamic model, together with the support for the neoclassical model, suggest that firms started to behave consistently with profit-maximization.