Investment and uncertainty in the G7

Empirical work on uncertainty and investment generally focuses on one country or one indicator of uncertainty. We extend the literature by assessing the impact of a comprehensive range of potential sources of uncertainty on aggregate business investment across the G7 using Pooled Mean Group Estimation (PMGE) and GARCH methods to model uncertainty. A significant negative long-run effect from exchange rate volatility is found for the G7 and in poolable subgroups including all four larger EU countries. Volatility of long-term interest rates has additionally influenced investment in recent years. For most estimates, a one standard deviation rise in conditional volatility leads to a 2-4 per cent fall in investment although some samples give greater declines. The results suggest inter alia that EMU is beneficial to aggregate investment.