Essays on Capital Reallocation

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/vh53wv837

Abstract

It is well known that US public firms have difficulty reallocating capital in recessions to more productive uses due to large liquidity costs associated with acquisitions and asset sales. Using the National Establishment Time Series (NETS) data consisting of all US establishments, many of them private and very small, we document a robust reallocation of capital taking place most often in recessions, when facing an adverse demand shock in the form of house price declines. In the first chapter, we document that capital is reallocated geographically through relocations, store closures, and new store openings.In the second chapter, we estimate the impact of Small Business Administration (SBA) loans during the great recession of 2007-2008 on firm-level performance. We find a strong positive impact of over $145,000 of additional sales per $1 million of SBA loan received by the firm. The added revenue is accompanied by an increase of 0.4 jobs and an increase in labor productivity of over $11,000 per employee, suggesting that SBA loans can indeed benefit small firms by easing their financial constraints during recession.

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