SCALE ECONOMIES AND HETEROGENEITY IN BUSINESS MONEY DEMAND: THE ITALIAN EXPERIENCE |
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| Authors: | Piero Ganugi Luigi Grossi Giancarlo Ianulardo |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy;2. Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy;3. Department of Economics, University of Exeter Business School, Exeter, UK |
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| Abstract: | This paper investigates the demand for money by firms and the existence of economies of scale in the Italian manufacturing industry. We estimate a model for cash elaborated by Fujiki and Mulligan using a different estimation procedure from the previous literature. We then introduce an iterative procedure based on backward exclusion of firms from model estimation which points out the high heterogeneity of Italian companies in money demand. Our estimates show that the Italian manufacturing industry, considered as a whole, does not enjoy scale economies in money demand. However, our iterative procedure points out that the cause of this result has to be ascribed to small firms which are characterized by thin cash money holdings and a consequent very modest opportunity cost. |
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| Keywords: | firms’ money demand panel data scale economies C23 E41 L16 |
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