The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis of financial restriction on fixed investment in a sample of Brazilian non-financial public companies, between 1995 and 2003. The study intends to contribute to the debate concerning the reasons for the low share of credit in the financing of fixed investment in Brazil. The theory of financial restriction on investment presupposes that when there are market capital imperfections, the capital structure is important for business decisions and that the investment decisions depend on the availability of cash flow. The intensity of financial restrictions depends on the degree of informational asymmetry and the financial conditions of companies. Consequently the sensitivity of investment to the availability of cash flow varies according to corporate characteristics. Thus an attempt was made to relate the intensity of financial restrictions to size, profitability, dividend pay out, liquidity, indebtedness, and control. 160 corporations were included in the sample. The study adopted an investment model based on Fazzari and Petersen (1993), an empirical methodology developed by Fazzari, Hubbard and Petersen (1988) and a panel regression method. It can be concluded from the results that Brazilian public companies indeed faced financial restrictions on their fixed investments between 1995 and 2003.