The Effect of Market Power Changes in the Banking Industry on Firms' Investment with Emphasis on Financial Constraints Channel

Over the past two decades, significant changes have taken place in the banking market power in Iran economy. In addition, economic theories provide different forecasts on the impact of banking market power on firms’ investment. For this reason, the present study examines the impact of these changes on firms’ investment. For this purpose, using the data of Tehran Stock Exchange companies during the period of 2005 to 2016, the investment model was estimated based on Euler's equations and dynamic generalized method of moments. The results of model estimation with confirming the existence of financial friction in Iran economy showed that firms faced financial constraint on investment. In addition, by rejecting market power hypothesis and by confirming asymmetric information hypothesis, the results showed that the declining in banking market power led to an increase in firms' financial constraints. The results also suggest that the firm size has been affecting the firm financial constraints, and increasing in the banking market power has reduced the financial constraints of small firms more than large firms. The results of model estimation with regard to the effect of business cycles indicate that during the boom period, the positive effect of the banking market power on firms' financial constraints has decreased and this effect increases during the recession period.