SSRN-Costly External Finance, Corporate Investment, and the Subprime Mortgage Credit Crisis by Ran Duchin, Oguzhan Ozbas, Berk Sensoy

Durchin, Ozbas, and Sensoy look at Corporate Investment after the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and find much proof that the liquidity crisis is reducing capital spending.

SSRN-Costly External Finance, Corporate Investment, and the Subprime Mortgage Credit Crisis by Ran Duchin, Oguzhan Ozbas, Berk Sensoy:

"We study corporate investment in the wake of the sub prime mortgage credit crisis that began in summer 2007. The crisis represents an unexplored negative shock to the supply of credit for non-financial firms. We find that corporate investment declines significantly following the onset of the crisis. The decline is greatest for firms that have low cash reserves (or high net debt) or are financially constrained, i.e. more likely to face difficulties raising external capital. These results are robust to controls for industry- and firm-specific investment opportunities. We also find that 'excess' cash, as defined by previous work, is positively related to post-crisis investment, suggesting an important precautionary savings role for seemingly excess cash that has not been emphasized in the literature. Overall, our results suggest that an important channel for the effects of the sub prime crisis on the real economy is a tightened supply of credit for non-financial firms."