Entrenchment, Managerial Shirking, and Investment

I examine the effects of entrenchment on corporate investment and firm performance. To achieve identification, I use a novel measure of entrenchment and an instrumental variable based on firms’ IPO cohort. I find that entrenchment reduces capital expenditures, R&D, and productivity, weakens a firm’s competitiveness in the product market, and diminishes firm value. These findings are consistent with the shirking hypothesis that entrenchment enables managers to evade the responsibilities of overseeing investment projects.