Sovereign Risk and Intangible Investment

Abstract

This paper measures the output and TFP costs of sovereign risk incorporating its impact on firm-level intangible investment. Combining Italian aggregate and firm-level data, we show that firms reduced their investment and reallocated resources away from intangible assets and towards tangible assets during the recent sovereign debt crisis. This asset reallocation is more pronounced among small and high-leverage firms, indicating the role of financial constraints. In our model, sovereign risk deteriorates bank balance sheets, disrupting banks’ ability to finance firms. Firms with greater external financing needs are more exposed to sovereign risk. Facing tightening financial constraints, firms internalize that tangible assets can be used as collateral while intangibles cannot, thus reallocating resources towards tangible investment to offset tightening financial conditions. In a counterfactual analysis, we find that elevated sovereign risk explains 86% of the observed output losses and 72% of TFP losses during the 2011-2013 Italian sovereign debt crisis.