We examine the sensitivity of corporate investment to stock‐market valuations (measured by Tobin's q) and internal funds (measured by cash flow) in a setting that captures the unique country institutional characteristics of the Middle East and North Africa region. We report a higher sensitivity of investments to cash flow than Tobin's q. However, both sensitivities are unaffected by the country institutional characteristics. By examining the sensitivity of investments to cash flow and Tobin's q before and after the 2008 global financial crisis, we document that the investment‐cash flow relation has weakened over time, while the investment‐Tobin's q relation has significantly strengthened. Finally, after dividing our country sample into resource‐rich and resource‐poor countries, the importance of cash flow over Tobin's q in the determination of corporate investment levels is asserted and the role of financial markets is found to be restricted to resource‐rich countries only.

中文翻译：

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制度特征，投资对现金流量的敏感性和托宾的q：来自中东和北非地区的证据

我们在捕捉中东和北非地区独特的国家机构特征的环境下，研究了企业投资对股票市场估值（由Tobin的q度量）和内部资金（由现金流量度量）的敏感性。我们报告的投资对现金流量的敏感性比Tobin的q高。但是，这两种敏感性都不受国家机构特征的影响。通过研究投资对现金流量的敏感性和2008年全球金融危机前后的托宾q，我们证明了投资与现金流量的关系随着时间的流逝而减弱，而投资托宾q关系已大大加强。最后，在将我们的国家样本划分为资源丰富和资源贫乏的国家之后，我们断定了现金流相对于托宾q在确定公司投资水平方面的重要性，并且发现金融市场的作用仅限于资源丰富的国家只要。