Firm Financial Status and Investment Behaviour: Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines firm’s investment behaviour sensitivity to cash flow before, during and after the recent global financial crisis using the data of 28 firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Market during the period from 2001 to 2012. The contribution of the study to the existing literature rests on using financial crisis as basis for classifying firms as either financially constrained or unconstrained. Employing the panel data and instrumental variable estimation techniques, the study finds that firms’ investment behaviour sensitivity to cash flow was higher during the financial crisis than before or after the financial crisis. In other words, Nigerian firms were highly financially constrained during the last financial crisis.