Focusing on a panel of unlisted firms from transition economies, we observe that only firms facing low irreversibility exhibit high and significant investment-cash flow sensitivities. Our findings provide a new explanation for why some financially constrained firms may exhibit low sensitivities.

Using a panel of 4223 Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, and Romanian firms, over the period 1998-2005, we show that financially constrained firms likely to face irreversibility constraints exhibit low and insignificant sensitivities of investment to cash flow. These firms typically use their cash flow...