Financial Flexibility and Investment Ability Across the Euro Area and the UK
基于大量欧洲私营和上市公司数据，发现保守杠杆政策带来的财务灵活性对私营、中小型、年轻企业以及信贷获取受限、投资者保护较弱国家的企业更为重要；2007年金融危机表明，财务灵活性可减轻流动性冲击对投资的负面影响。
Abstract We use a very large sample of European private and public firms to show that financial flexibility attained through a conservative leverage policy is more important for private, small‐medium‐sized, and young firms and for firms in countries with less access to credit and weaker investor protection. Further, using the 2007 financial crisis as a natural experiment, we show that a higher degree of financial flexibility allows firms to reduce the negative impact of liquidity shocks on investment. Our findings support the hypothesis that financial flexibility improves companies' ability to undertake future investment, despite market frictions hampering possible growth opportunities.