# Profs Ljungqvist and Asker's research on company reinvestments

1 August 1, 2013 The Washington Post ![The Washington Post logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_031074.jpg?itok=f6OME_Rm)>

Excerpt from [The Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-publicly-owned-companies-need-to-invest-for-the-future/2013/07/31/b477a1d2-f94a-11e2-8e84-c56731a202fb_story.html) -- "Today, corporate profits account for 12 percent of GDP, while net investment has shrunk to 4 percent. When [Asker](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/john-asker), [Ljungqvist](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/alexander-ljungqvist) and Farre-Mensa looked into this anomaly, they unearthed a startling fact: While publicly traded firms devote 3.7 percent of their total assets to investment, comparable privately owned firms devote 6.8 percent. Using a new database that provides more information on more privately held firms than had previously been available, the economists discovered a problem at the heart of this nation's shareholder version of capitalism."

[Read more](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-publicly-owned-companies-need-to-invest-for-the-future/2013/07/31/b477a1d2-f94a-11e2-8e84-c56731a202fb_story.html)