摘要：This paper examines the adjustment of inventories by firms in the UK and Spain. A
widely-held view—but one which has not found much support in previous studies of inventories—
is that a key channel for monetary policy is through influencing inventory accumulation.
Using a large company-level panel dataset for both countries, significant effects associated
with borrowing costs on inventories are estimated. Financial effects associated with liquid-
ity and the borrowing ratio are estimated to be weaker in Spain than in the UK. Since the
Spanish financial system is more clearly bank-based, this is interpreted as contrary to the
‘bank-dependence hypothesis’.
