Firm Heterogeneity and the Response of Investment to Monetary Policy
It is well known that monetary policy affects firms’ investment decisions. But which firms are the most responsive to changes in interest rates? And does this responsiveness vary over time? The literature has given diverse answers to this question, focusing on characteristics such as firm size, age, and financial position, and mostly studying these traits in isolation. In this post based on a recent Staff Report, we explore how investment responsiveness to monetary policy changes across firms and over time. We find that investment by most firms in most time periods responds little to monetary policy. For some firms in some periods, however, investment is very responsive to changes in interest rates. While these instances of strong sensitivity correlate with several firm traits, there is substantial variation that cannot easily be linked to specific characteristics of firms. Our findings therefore underscore the importance of considering the entire distribution of investment responses rather than focusing on the average effect.
