Financialisation and firm-level investment in developing and emerging economies

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses the effects of financialisation on non-financial companies’ (NFCs) investment and explores the interactions between financialisation and the structural and institutional features of developing and emerging economies (DEEs). We estimate the effects of financialisation on physical investment for a sample of DEEs using panel data based on the balance sheets of publicly listed NFCs. Our main contribution is to assess the interactions between the financialisation of the NFCs and country-level financial development, financial reform, capital account openness and global value chain participation. We find that the effects of the financialisation of the NFCs in DEEs are highly context specific. Stock market development, financial reforms for liberalisation, capital account openness and participation in the global value chains are associated with more pronounced negative effects of financialisation on investment. Our analysis provides novel empirical evidence regarding the sources of variation in the financialisation of corporations in DEEs.