摘要：This paper examines financial pressure facing Spanish companies. A number of
stylised facts regarding the financial performance and financing decisions of Spanish
firms are first presented for the period 1985-2000 using repeated annual cross-sections
of around 5,000 manufacturing and retail firms. (i) In periods of general financial
fragility, most notably during the recession of 1993, the experience of the most financially
vulnerable companies is even more distressed than movements in aggregate or average
figures would suggest (ii) the burden of borrowing costs has declined for most companies
in the mid-/late-1990s, but particularly for those at the top of the distribution (iii) the
cross-sectional distribution of indebtedness across firms has remained remarkably stable
but (iv) this conceals significant variation in debt ratios for individual firms.
Using panel data methods, the effects of financial pressure associated with ser-
vicing debt on a number of aspects of corporate behaviour are then examined, namely
fixed investment, employment (both permanent and temporary), inventories and div-
idend policies. Our results quantify the responsiveness of each of these responses to
financial pressure experienced by firms in Spain. Quantitatively large effects of finan-
cial pressure on investment and employment are estimated, although these work through
more quickly in the case of fixed investment. The effects on employment are found to
be larger and work through more quickly in the case of temporary than permanent
employment. We also find significant effects on inventory investment and dividend pay-
ments confirming these additional mechanisms of adjustment by companies in Spain in
resp
onse
to
financial
pressure
