Manuscript Title:

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVE ACCUMULATION AND CORPORATE INVESTMENT: THE CASE OF LISTED FIRMS IN VIETNAM

Author:

LONG HAU LE, TAN NGHIEM LE, LANG HOANG HAC TRAN, VIET THANH TRUC TRAN, BICH TUYEN DUONG, THI THANH TAM NGUYEN

DOI Number:

DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/VFY8A

Published : 2023-01-23

About the author(s)

1. LONG HAU LE - Associate Professor, Ph.D., Department of Finance and Banking, School of Economics, Can Tho University, Can Tho, Vietnam.
2. TAN NGHIEM LE - Ph.D., Department of Business Administration, School of Economics, Can Tho University, Can Tho, Vietnam.
3. LANG HOANG HAC TRAN - Master, the State Bank of Vietnam, a Giang, Vietnam.
4. VIET THANH TRUC TRAN - Master, Department of Finance and Banking, School of Economics, Can Tho University, Can Tho, Vietnam.
5. BICH TUYEN DUONG - Master, School of Economics, Nam Can Tho University, Can Tho, Vietnam.
6. THI THANH TAM NGUYEN - Master, Can Tho University, Can Tho, Vietnam.

Full Text : PDF

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of foreign exchange reserves accumulation on the investment of companies in Vietnam. A detailed data of 332 firms listed on Hochiminh Stock Exchange is collected over the period from the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2019. Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) is employed to test the proposed hypotheses in this study. Estimation results reveal that great changes in foreign exchange reserves reduce corporate investment. Besides that, according to the growth stage of reserve accumulation, to some extent, foreign exchange reserve accumulation benefits domestic investment. However, when reserves increases tremendously, it may cause negative effect to investment. The study also investigates the impact of foreign exchange reserves on investment of companies in different industries. Empirical findings point out that for firms which are newly listed, young, small, and has low investment in fixed asset and low dividend payout ratio, the investment-cash flow sensitivity is very high. Changing in foreign exchange reserves does not greatly affect firm investment. In contrast, for enterprises which are long-established, large, and has high fixed asset value and high dividend payout ratio, the investment-cash flow sensitivity is lower. However, large change in the accumulation of reserves adversely affects firm investment. The empirical findings imply that government should be more cautious in managing foreign exchange reserves and firms should develop a plan to effectively manage their cash in order to lower borrowing costs as well as to less depend on external financing sources.


Keywords

Foreign exchange reserve accumulation, Investment, Generalized Method of Moments method, Vietnam.