Abstract Purpose The financing of growth of the firm is quite sensitive to fluctuations in Fund rates. This requires a treatment of Fund rates being subject to structural shifts. This paper examines the impact of threshold Federal Fund Rate (FFR), being a proxy for Federal Reserve policy, on different dimensions of growth of the US firm. The goal is to examine the extent to which shifts in FFR cause changes in firms’ growth using three main proxies: assets, sales revenue and number of employees. Design/methodology/approach This paper follows “Threshold Fixed Effect” model as a new methodological treatment that offers a structural change in the sources of funds for financing growth of the firms. The authors propose that “Threshold Fixed effect regression” and “Threshold First Difference Generalized Method of Moments” provide robust results of the impact of FFR shifts on growth of the firms. Findings The main findings are as follows. First, the impact of FFR is substantially significant on growth of the firms listed in S&P500 when FFR declines below the threshold point 1.35 percent. That is, a slight move in the FFR adversely affects growth of firms four times higher relative to the situation when FFR is greater than 1.35 percent. Second, as far as actual Fund rates are fluctuating around zero percent, the results show that each one percent increase in the FFR is associated with a decrease in the firm size by 0.5 percent. Originality/value This paper offers three significant contributions to the literature. First, this paper offers a novel treatment of the effect of Fund rates on the financing of growth of the firm. As far as the authors’ knowledge is concerned, this paper might be the first attempt to use “Threshold fixed effect” model to estimate the effects of threshold FFR on growth of the firm. Second, the results of threshold FFR offer robust evidence that theories of firm capital structure are contingent on structural changes in threshold interest rates. Third, this paper provides an empirical guidline to central banks regrading the determination of Fund rates that help firms to grow.

中文翻译：

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基金利率如何影响美国公司？阈值估计

摘要 目的企业成长融资对基金利率的波动非常敏感。这需要对受结构性变化影响的基金利率进行处理。本文研究了作为美联储政策代理的联邦基金利率门槛值对美国公司不同维度增长的影响。目标是使用三个主要指标来检查 FFR 的变化在多大程度上导致公司增长的变化：资产、销售收入和员工人数。设计/方法/途径 本文遵循“阈值固定效应”模型作为一种新的方法论处理，为公司融资增长提供资金来源的结构性变化。作者提出“阈值固定效应回归”和“阈值一阶差分广义矩法”提供了 FFR 变化对公司增长影响的稳健结果。调查结果 主要调查结果如下。首先，当 FFR 下降到阈值点 1.35% 以下时，FFR 对 S&P500 中上市公司的增长的影响非常显着。也就是说，相对于 FFR 大于 1.35% 的情况，FFR 的轻微变动会对公司增长产生四倍的不利影响。其次，就实际基金利率在 0% 附近波动而言，结果表明，FFR 每增加 1%，公司规模就会减少 0.5%。原创性/价值 本文对文献提供了三个重要的贡献。第一的，本文提供了一种关于基金利率对公司成长融资影响的新方法。就作者的知识而言，本文可能是首次尝试使用“阈值固定效应”模型来估计阈值 FFR 对公司增长的影响。其次，门槛 FFR 的结果提供了强有力的证据，证明公司资本结构理论取决于门槛利率的结构变化。第三，本文为中央银行重新确定有助于公司增长的基金利率的决定提供了经验指导。其次，门槛 FFR 的结果提供了强有力的证据，证明公司资本结构理论取决于门槛利率的结构变化。第三，本文为中央银行重新确定有助于公司增长的基金利率的决定提供了经验指导。其次，门槛 FFR 的结果提供了强有力的证据，证明公司资本结构理论取决于门槛利率的结构变化。第三，本文为中央银行重新确定有助于公司增长的基金利率的决定提供了经验指导。