Do asymmetric information and leverage affect investment decisions?

Abstract We investigate the impact of asymmetric information on the investment decisions of firms and analyze the effect of asymmetric information on the over-investment and under-investment of firms. Further, we examine the effect of leverage on the investment behavior of firms and check this association in the presence of asymmetric information. We extract data from DataStream of 280 non-financial firms listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period of 2000 to 2018. We apply the Fixed Effect Model to analyze the data and System Generalized Method of Moments to check the robustness of the results. We find that asymmetric information negatively affects the investment decisions of firms. Due to asymmetric information investment decreases rapidly as compared to increase in investment. Further, leverage is an important determinant of investment decisions and the presence of asymmetric information increases the adverse effect of leverage on the investment of firms.