Journals / Anadolu Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi / 2026 / Volume: 27 Issue: 3

CORPORATE INDEBTEDNESS AND INVESTMENT: EVIDENCE FROM TURKISH-LISTED FIRMS

Pages
—
Publication Date
2026-09-22
🏛️Bibliographic metadata and full text access for this article are provided via DergiPark.
DergiPark Record ↗
✨

AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

These results contribute to the scarce evidence on the debt–investment nexus in emerging markets and underscore the importance of firm balance sheets in amplifying investment contractions following financial crises.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:This paper examines how firm-level investment responds to corporate indebtedness following financial shocks.
📊
Key Findings & Data:We treat the 2008 Global Financial Crisis as an experiment and analyze a panel of listed Turkish non-financial firms over 2004–2021.
💡
Conclusion & Impact:These results contribute to the scarce evidence on the debt–investment nexus in emerging markets and underscore the importance of firm balance sheets in amplifying investment contractions following financial crises.
🔬Design:Research Article
📍Scope:2008 Verileri
⚙️Variables:Corporate Debt · Debt Overhang · Financial Shock

Abstract

This paper examines how firm-level investment responds to corporate indebtedness following financial shocks. We treat the 2008 Global Financial Crisis as an experiment and analyze a panel of listed Turkish non-financial firms over 2004–2021. We find that firms with higher leverage entering the crisis invested significantly less than their low-debt counterparts, with financial debt having the strongest negative effect. Pre-crisis cash buffers substantially protect firms from leverage-induced underinvestment. The results are robust to alternative measures of debt, fixed-effects structures, definitions of investment, and clustering approaches. These results contribute to the scarce evidence on the debt–investment nexus in emerging markets and underscore the importance of firm balance sheets in amplifying investment contractions following financial crises.

🔖

Cite This Article

Alkan, B., Demirkılıç, S. (2026). CORPORATE INDEBTEDNESS AND INVESTMENT: EVIDENCE FROM TURKISH-LISTED FIRMS. Anadolu Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, Volume: 27 Issue: 3. https://doi.org/10.53443/anadoluibfd.1936202

📄 Full Text PDF Viewer

📄

PDF görüntüleyici hazırlanıyor...

References (29)

  1. Abraham, F., Cortina, J. J., & Schmukler, S. L. (2020). Growth of global corporate debt: Main facts and policy challenges. The World Bank Policy Research Working Papers. https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-9394
  2. Akcigit, U., Akgunduz, Y. E., Cilasun, S. M., Ozcan-Tok, E., & Yilmaz, F. (2020). Facts on business dynamism in Turkey. European Economic Review, 128, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103490
  3. Akcigit, U., Seven, Ü., Yarba, İ., & Yılmaz, F. (2024). Firm-level impact of public credit guarantees. European Economic Review, 170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2024.104861
  4. Barbiero, F., Popov, A., & Wolski, M. (2020). Debt overhang, global growth opportunities, and investment. Journal of Banking and Finance, 120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2020.105950
  5. Bernanke, B. S., Gertler, M., & Gilchrist, S. (1999). The financial accelerator in a quantitative business cycle framework. In J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (Eds.), Handbook of macroeconomics (Vol. 1, pp. 1341–1393). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1574-0048(99)10034-X
  6. Blickle, K., & Santos, J. A. C. (2020). The costs of corporate debt overhang. SSRN. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3708502
  7. Borensztein, E., & Ye, L. S. (2021). Corporate debt overhang and investment in emerging economies: Firm-level evidence. International Finance, 24, 18–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/infi.12382
  8. Cevik, S., & Miryugin, F. (2020). Leverage shocks: Firm-level evidence on debt overhang and investment (IMF Working Paper No. 20/287). International Monetary Fund. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513564654.001
  9. Das, S., & Tulin, V. (2017). Financial frictions, underinvestment, and investment composition: Evidence from Indian corporates (IMF Working Paper No. 17/134). International Monetary Fund. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484302644.001
  10. De Socio, A., & Sette, E. (2018). Firms' investment during two crises (Bank of Italy Working Paper No. 1173). Bank of Italy. https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/temi-discussione/2018/2018-1173/en_tema_1173.pdf
  11. Demirkılıç, S. (2021). Balance sheet effects of foreign currency debt and real exchange rate on corporate investment: Evidence from Turkey. Emerging Markets Review, 47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ememar.2021.100796
  12. Durante, E., Ferrando, A., & Vermeulen, P. (2022). Monetary policy, investment, and firm heterogeneity. European Economic Review, 148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2022.104251
  13. Gebauer, S., Setzer, R., & Westphal, A. (2018). Corporate debt and investment: A firm-level analysis for stressed euro area countries. Journal of International Money and Finance, 86, 112–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jimonfin.2018.04.009
  14. Grossman, S., & Hart, O. (1982). Corporate financial structure and managerial incentives. In J. J. McCall (Ed.), The economics of information and uncertainty. University of Chicago Press. 107-140. http://www.nber.org/chapters/c4434
  15. Harford, J., Klasa, S., & Maxwell, W. F. (2014). Refinancing risk and cash holdings. The Journal of Finance, 69(3), 975–1012. https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12133
  16. Heresi, R., & Powell, A. (2022). Corporate debt and investment in the post-COVID world (IDB Working Paper Series No. 1316). Inter-American Development Bank. https://doi.org/10.18235/0004464
  17. Jordà, Ò. (2005). Estimation and inference of impulse responses by local projections. American Economic Review, 95(1), 161–182. https://doi.org/10.1257/0002828053828518
  18. Joseph, A., Kneer, C., & van Horen, N. (2020). All you need is cash: Corporate cash holdings and investment after a crisis (Bank of England Staff Working Paper No. 843). Bank of England. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2019/all-you-need-is-cash
  19. Kalemli-Ozcan, S., Laeven, L., & Moreno, D. (2022). Debt overhang, rollover risk, and investment in Europe. Journal of the European Economic Association, 1–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvac018
  20. Magud, N., & Sosa, S. (2015). Investment in emerging markets: We are not in Kansas anymore. or are we? (IMF Working Paper No. 15/77). International Monetary Fund. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781475534221.001
  21. Myers, S. C. (1977). Determinants of corporate borrowing. Journal of Financial Economics, 5(2), 147–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-405X(77)90015-0
  22. Myers, S. C., & Majluf, N. S. (1984). Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have. Journal of Financial Economics, 13(2), 187–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-405X(84)90023-0
  23. Nickell, S. (1981). Biases in dynamic models with fixed effects. Econometrica, 49(6), 1417–1426. https://doi.org/10.2307/1911408
  24. Opler, T., Pinkowitz, L., Stulz, R., & Williamson, R. (1999). The determinants and implications of corporate cash holdings. Journal of Financial Economics, 52(1), 3–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-405X(99)00003-3
  25. Ross, S. (1977). The determination of financial structure: The incentive-signalling approach. The Bell Journal of Economics, 8(1), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.2307/3003485
  26. Stiglitz, J. E., & Weiss, A. (1981). Credit rationing in markets with imperfect information. The American Economic Review, 71(3), 393–410. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1802787
  27. Yarba, İ. (2022). Is corporate indebtedness a drag on investment after financial shocks? (Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey Working Paper No. 22/03). Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. https://www.tcmb.gov.tr/wps/wcm/connect/EN/TCMB+EN/Main+Menu/Publications/Research/Working+Paperss/2022/22-03
  28. Yarba, İ. (2023). Does the inverted U-shape between corporate indebtedness and investment hold up for emerging markets? Evidence from Türkiye. Borsa Istanbul Review, 23(Suppl.), S75–S83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bir.2023.11.002
  29. Magud, N., & Sosa, S. (2015). Investment in emerging markets: We are not in Kansas anymore. or are we? (IMF Working Paper No. 15/77). International Monetary Fund. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781475534221.001