Can Capital Adjustment Costs Explain the Decline in Investment–Cash Flow Sensitivity?
基于新古典投资模型，研究发现资本调整成本的上升（源于知识资本积累）可以解释1970年代以来投资-现金流敏感性的持续下降，并指出该指标应被视为金融摩擦和实际摩擦的共同度量。
Abstract It is well documented that since at least the 1970s investment-cash flow (I-CF) sensitivity has been decreasing over time to disappear almost completely by the late 2000s. Based on a neoclassical investment model with costly external financing, we show that this pattern can be explained by the gradual increase of capital adjustment costs, attributable to the accumulation of knowledge capital. The result is robust to a variety of approaches, including Euler equation estimation and the simulated method of moments. More generally, our findings demonstrate that I-CF sensitivity should only be interpreted as a joint measure of financial and real frictions.