The objective of this paper is to investigate if and how capital adjustment departs from the smooth pattern implied by standard model based on convex adjustment costs. Using Norwegian micro data, we start by documenting the intermittent and lumpy nature of investment rates. We then present two pieces of econometric evidence on these issues. First, we estimate a discrete hazard model to determine the probability of having an episode of high investment, conditional on the length of the interval from the last high-investment episode. Second, we estimate a switching regression model that allows for the response of the investment rate to fundamentals to differ across regimes. In both cases we investigate the aggregate implications of our results.

The effect of financial liberalization on private saving is theoretically ambiguous, not only because the link between interest rate levels and saving is itself ambiguous, but also because financial liberalization is a multidimensional and phased process, sometimes involving reversals. Using principal components, we construct 25-year time-series indices of financial liberalization for each of eight developing countries: Chile, Ghana, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Turkey, and Zimbabwe. These are employed in an econometric analysis of private saving in these countries. Our results cannot offer support for the hypothesis that financial liberalization will increase saving. On the contrary, the indications are that liberalization overall—and in particular those elements that relax liquidity constraints—may be associated with a fall in saving.

In this paper we develop a switching regression model of investment, in which the probability of a firm facing a high premium on external finance is endogenously determined. This approach allows one to address the potential problem of static and dynamic misclassification encountered where firms are sorted using a criteria chosen a priori. We use U.S. firm level data to analyze the effects of variables that capture each firm's credit worthiness, asymmetric information, and agency problems on the probability of being in the high- or low-premium regime. The role of macroeconomic conditions and monetary policy is also discussed.