Mickey Mouse and the IDioT principle for assessing research contribution: discussion of ‘Is the relationship between investment and conditional cash flow volatility ambiguous, asymmetric or both?’

Keefe and Tate ([Keefe, M., 2013]) provide both interesting and worthwhile insights into whether, under what circumstances and to what extent cash flow volatility impacts corporate investment. In the current paper, I have two related goals. First, more narrowly, I provide a constructively critical commentary on salient aspects of their empirical strategy, giving particular emphasis to the key drivers of K eefe and T ate's contribution to the literature. Second, illustrated in the context of K eefe and T ate, my broader goal is to give general advice especially aimed at novice researchers on how to make any empirical study more appealing to a critical reader.