This paper investigates the link between corporate debt and investment for a group of five peripheral euro area … countries. Using firm-level data from 2005-2014, we postulate a non-linear corporate leverage-investment relationship and derive … thresholds beyond which leverage has a negative and significant impact on investment. The investment sensitivity of debt …

investment by 24.3 to 48.5% during the COVID-19 crisis, compared to 19% during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Using historical … faced by corporates between investment and leverage. It also suggests that, should the estimated gap in net revenues … materialise as the result of the crisis, the decline in corporate investment would likely be within the computed ranges. …

legacy of high debt or leverage. Models of corporate investment behavior based on imperfect capital markets predict that … highly leveraged balance sheets can act as a brake on investment spending. The paper''s empirical analysis suggests that … leverage effects on corporate investment can be substantial and persistent, particularly if leverage exceeds threshold values …