This dissertation consists of three empirical essays that focus on growth and investment in aggregate and at firm-level. The first essay focuses on the issue of aggregate economic growth. The purposes of this essay are to re-investigate the effectiveness of government size and quality of institutions to foster economic growth in developed and developing countries. This essay also examines a non-linear relation between government size and economic growth and finally to identify the specific channels of institutions quality that determine economic growth aggregately. The second essay identifies the response of firms’ investment to the market interest rate uncertainty and debt holding in Malaysia as one developing country. The sensitivity of firms’ investment to the interaction between aggregate uncertainty and debt holding isalso emphasized. This essay also examines the heterogeneity between high- and low-indebted firms groups. The final essay is conducted specifically at firm-level in Malaysia. The aims of this essay are to investigate the effect of financial factors on firms’ growth in Malaysia. It also examines the heterogeneity betweenfirms that have been divided into specific groups based on their size and sectors. The results for the first essay show that government size and institutions were ineffective to foster economic growth. It also revealed that government size has a non-linear effect on economic growth, while democracy and law and order play a positive role to foster economic growth. The second essay discovers that firms’ investment responds negatively to the aggregate uncertainty and debt holding. However, the effect of the interaction between aggregate uncertainty and debt holding on firms’ investment was not significant; these results were quite homogenous for high- and low-indebted firms in Malaysia. The results for the third essay indicate that financial factors, particularly internal funds, play an important role to foster firms’ growth in Malaysia. The results also indicate heterogeneity that is categorized by size and sector.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:577249 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Ahmad, Riayati |
| Contributors | Podivinsky, Jan |
| Publisher | University of Southampton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/346632/ |
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