Determinants of working capital in emerging markets: do economic developments matter?

Abstract

Previous literature established on the effects of working capital management on firm's profitability or firm value and focused mostly on firm-level determinants of working capital. In this study, we aimed to examine the determinants of working capital management not only at firm level but also industry-country level. Our sample consists of 1253 manufacturing firms across 13 industries from 14 emerging markets between year 2000 and 2014. Our findings indicate that at firm-level variables, return on asset has a negative relationship with working capital while Tobin Q and Altman Z-score have a positive. At industry-country level variables, HH index, exchange rate, Lerner index, and rule of law have a positive relationship with working capital levels while credit from private sector variable has a negative relationship with working capital levels.