What are the causes of the growing trend of excess savings of the corporate sector in developed countries? An empirical analysis of three hypotheses.

We analyze a sample of manufacturing firms from Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and UK during the period 1997-2011, and find an increasing trend of excess savings (defined as the difference between gross saving and capital formation), and a gradual decline of gross capital formation. This trend is accompanied by a steady deleveraging process and a decrease in the share of operating assets in total assets. This process is more acute among the more credit constrained, the more volatile, and the less dynamic firms.