The Corporate Cost of Capital and the Return on Corporate Investment

We estimate the internal rates of return earned by nonfinancial firms on (i) the initial market values of their securities and (ii) the cost of their investments. The return on value is an estimate of the overall corporate cost of capital. The estimate of the real cost of capital for 1950–96 is 5.95 percent. The real return on cost is larger, 7.38 percent, so on average corporate investment seems to be profitable. A by-product of calculating these returns is information about the history of corporate earnings, investment, and financing decisions that is perhaps more interesting than the returns.     

Corporate Diversification and the Cost of Capital

We examine whether organizational form matters for a firm's cost of capital. Contrary to the conventional view, we argue that coinsurance among a firm's business units can reduce systematic risk through the avoidance of countercyclical deadweight costs. We find that diversified firms have, on average, a lower cost of capital than comparable portfolios of stand‐alone firms. In addition, diversified firms with less correlated segment cash flows have a lower cost of capital, consistent with a coinsurance effect. Holding cash flows constant, our estimates imply an average value gain of approximately 5% when moving from the highest to the lowest cash flow correlation quintile.     

A Fundamental Approach to Estimating Economies of Scale and Scope of Financial Products: The Case of Mutual Funds

We propose a Fundamental approach to estimate the economies of scale and scope for financial institutions offering multi-product lines. We first estimate pure economies of scale from its fundamental definition, which is the marginal cost reduction that is to be achieved by single product firms of increasing size that offer the same product. Similarly, we estimate the economies of scope from its fundamental definition, as the marginal cost reduction achieved by the addition of a new product line. Operationally, we compare the cost of operating a say, 3 product-line financial institution with the cost of operating a portfolios of companies that are synthetically created from a control sample of financial institutions offering fewer, such as 2 and 1 similar product lines. When this approach is applied to mutual funds data, we find economies of scale for some fund type. The evidence on marginal cost economies due to increasing scope is rather weak. The results have practical implications for potential organizers and current management of investment companies.     

The Impact of Personal Taxes on the Firm's Weighted Average Cost of Capital and Investment Behaviour: A Simplified Approach Using the Dempsey Discounted Dividends Model

The discounted dividends model advanced by Dempsey (1996) is extended to provide a weighted average cost of capital (WACC) assessment of investment opportunities with irregular cash flows. Thereafter, the framework is extended to an assessment of the implications of government tax policy for the firm's investment behaviour. The developed framework is consistent with the empirical evidence of Poterba and Summers (1985) which — over the period of UK tax history 1950–1983 encompassing four major tax on equity reforms — observes how the related dividend and investment politics of UK firms appear to be influenced by the level of dividend taxes.     

Estimating the Divisional Cost of Capital: An Analysis of the Pure-Play Technique

This paper suggests that the pure-play technique can be used in conjunction with the capital asset pricing model to determine the cost of equity capital for the divisions of a multidivision firm. Since the beta for a division is unobservable in the marketplace, a proxy beta derived from a publicly traded firm whose operations are as similar as possible to the division in question is used as the measure of the division's systematic risk. To provide empirical support for using the pure-play technique, a sample of multidivision firms and pure-play associated with each division is examined. It is shown that an appropriately weighted average of the betas of the pure-play firms closely approximates the beta of the multidivision firm.     

Corporate Governance and the Cost of Capital: Evidence from Australian Companies

The authors examine a sample of large Australian companies over a 10‐year period with the aim of analyzing the role that firm‐level corporate governance mechanisms such as insider ownership and independent boards play in explaining a company's cost of capital. The Australian corporate system offers a unique environment for assessing the impact of corporate governance mechanisms. Australian companies have board structures and mechanisms that are similar in design to Anglo‐Saxon boards while offering a striking contrast to those of German and Japanese boards. At the same time, however, the Australian market for corporate control is much less active as a corrective mechanism against management entrenchment than its U.S. and U.K. counterparts, making the role of internal governance mechanisms potentially more important in Australia than elsewhere. The authors report that greater insider ownership, the presence of institutional blockholders, and independent boards are all associated with reductions in the perceived risk of a firm, thereby leading investors to demand lower rates of return on capital. In so doing, the study provides evidence of the important role of corporate governance in increasing corporate values.     

企业社会责任信息披露与权益资本成本

运用理论分析和实证检验的方法从权益资本成本的角度研究我国上市公司企业社会责任信息披露的经济动机.研究发现:上市公司上期权益资本成本越高,本期披露社会责任报告的可能性越大,说明降低权益资本成本是上市公司决定是否披露社会责任报告的重要经济动机;对于首次披露企业社会责任报告的公司,上期权益资本成本越高,本期社会责任信息披露质量越高;但对非首次披露企业社会责任报告的公司来说,披露企业社会责任报告的资本成本动机不显著.     

开放式基金的投资成本分析

美国开放式基金业的发展历史表明，要想有效、较快地降低投资成本，没有有效的竞争是不行的。一万家基金并存和只有两家基金存在对成本降低的压力明显不同，所以，开放式基金必须适当放开市场准入限制。     

Growth Opportunities and Investment Decisions: A New Perspective on the Cost of Capital

This paper shows that it is not always correct to make an upward adjustment to the stock beta in calculating the hurdle rate for capital budgeting even when the project under consideration is riskier than existing assets. The paper also shows that the correct hurdle rate is smaller than the market capitalization rate calculated from the firm's stock beta when the project under consideration has the same risk as existing assets. In addition, it is shown that the market capitalization rate will be an underestimate (overestimate) of the correct hurdle rate when the risk of future assets is greater (smaller) than both the risk of assets in place and that of future capital expenditures. These new results are direct consequences of the insight that the firm's investment opportunities are in fact real call options written on underlying assets.     

我国保险资金与资本市场相互关系实证研究

本文选择资本市场和保险资金市场具有代表性的时间序列数据进行实证研究,分析了我国保险资金与资本市场之间的Granger因果关系、长期均衡关系和短期波动情况,并结合实证研究的结果对我国保险资金投资运用和资本市场的发展提出了相关的建议。     

国有商业银行建立和完善公司治理结构新探

建立和完善公司治理结构是国有银行商业化的关键，是实现银行价值最大化的制度保障，也是实现中国银行业与国际接轨的必要准备。加快金融体制改革，公司治理结构改革的核心是处理好委托代理关系，关键是界定产权边界，调整产权结构。本文分析了国有商业银行实行公司治理结构的现状，对如何建立和完善比较科学的治理结构进行了有益的探索。     

高职学院生均成本与规模关系的实证研究

高职学院的规模由多种因素制约,高职学院的生均成本也受多种因素制约,在临界规模范围内,学校规模越大,则生均成本越小,但超过了临界规模,规模效益并无明显改善,甚至会下降。所以,生均成本与高职规模不是纯粹的线性关系,两者的关系是多种因素互相作用的结果。生均成本与高职适度规模的合理配置,是学生数在1万人左右,生均成本在9千元左右。     

巴塞尔新资本协议与商业银行公司治理

巴塞尔新资本协议所倡导的不仅是全面风险管理的理念和先进的资本计量方法,更蕴含着丰富的公司治理原则和要求,包括:董事会应以全面风险管理的视角制定战略规划,董事会和高级管理层应积极参与全面风险管理体系的运作,商业银行应采取与审慎风险承担有效结合的薪酬激励机制等.在此基础上,本文从战略规划、董事会运作、沟通协调机制、风险管理...     

资产基础法≠成本法

按照《企业价值评估指导意见（试行）》的要求,资产评估机构在评估企业价值时需采取两种或两种以上的方法进行评估。由于市场法受到我国目前公开信息披露量的制约,资产基础法和收益法成为目前企业价值评估中最常用的两种评估途径。因业内的习惯意识,资产基础法往往被理解为评估单项资产时采用的成本法。     

股权结构、资本结构与公司价值的实证研究

文献回顾 自1932年以来,Berle和Means及许多研究者对经营者和股东的利益冲突进行了广泛研究,努力寻求理解公司的本质.股权结构与公司绩效的关系命题的提出与Berle和Means的假说有关.该假说认为,两权分离式的现代公司由于股权高度分散,公司受控于经营者而非众多小股东,公司资产是为经营者的利益使用而不是使股东财富最大化.由于经营者的个人价值取向与股东间的利益冲突,从而不能保证公司业绩达到最优.