制度环境、地方政府投资冲动与财政预算软约束

财政预算缺乏有效约束导致地方政府普遍过度负债,如何"硬化"地方政府预算、调整地方政府支出的超额扩张是解决当前大规模债务的基础课题之一。本文借鉴BFI指数构建了中国省级财政预算约束指数,并分析了影响财政预算约束及预算约束调整的相关因素。研究发现,良好的制度环境有利于约束地方政府预算超额扩张;而分权导致的以经济增长为标尺的地方政府投资冲动,是造成地方预算软约束的重要原因。进一步分析结果表明,较差的制度环境更容易诱导地方政府公共支出结构的偏向性配置,从而加剧其在建设性领域中的投资冲动,降低了预算约束调整成功的可能性。在加强制度环境建设的同时,着重改革分权框架下地方政府投资竞争的扭曲性制度激励,有利于治理财政预算软约束并有效控制地方政府的扩张偏向性支出行为。     

预算软约束、过度投资与股权再融资

本文旨在研究预算软约束环境与我国上市公司股权再融资之间的关系.首先,根据DM动态模型,构建了企业股权再融资决策模型;进而以2008～2009年我国所有A股上市公司为样本,在控制相关变量的影响后,研究发现:预算软约束将会导致上市公司存在过度投资现象,而且国有企业的过度投资倾向比民营企业更为强烈;上市公司股权再融资偏好与过度投资正相关.     

企业、银行和政府三方还贷博弈研究

预算软约束已成为国有企业改革的阻碍因素,并影响经济转型期的政企、银企关系,而政府对于债务的软预算约束是企业信贷违约的原因之一,根据企业还贷过程中相关利益者的相互博弈,建立一个企业、银行、政府之间三方博弈模型来分析它们之间的行为及其目标差异对企业信贷违约的影响。模型分析表明：政府出于政治和经济利益的考虑,通过补贴银行和企业来实施对企业还贷的软预算约束,而银行在衡量了政府补贴和清算得失之后有可能对企业再贷款。解决预算软约束和企业信贷违约的关键在于＂政府、银行、企业＂之间的关系处理,企业完全按市场化运作,建立科学的法人治理结构,让政府从企业中逐步退出,硬化企业的预算约束环境,从而降低企业的信贷违约的概率。     

杠杆治理、预算软约束和中国上市公司绩效

在概述西方金融理论中债务融资的公司治理功能文献之后,本文主要探讨预算软约束下的杠杆治理是否有效这一学术问题。选用我国上市公司为样本,本文发现随着银行贷款规模的增大,经理层的公款消费和自由现金流增大,企业效率和公司价值下降;然而,董事会成员替换频率没有显著关系。在我国,债务融资非但没有提升公司治理,反而扩大了经理的代理成本。这一反常的金融现象来源于预算软约束,并且引致了我国的银行坏账问题。     

政府权力、营利性扩张与通货膨胀

本文从政府权力视角,设立分权制度下中央、地方两级政府的目标函数,分别在大政府范畴的预算约束条件下求解其最优选择和长期稳态路径。本文的结论是,长期稳态价格水平不仅取决于中央、地方两级政府的债务规模、税收与支出,而且还受到国有企业投资的影响;中央政府的投资、债务、利润与货币增长之间相互推进,地方政府为扩大投资竞争融资来源具有强烈的货币增长需求,这倒逼货币供给增加;通货膨胀主要原因之一就是政府权力软约束下的营利性投资扩张。因此,治理通货膨胀的必要条件是,设计一种政府与治理通货膨胀具有共融利益的制度,减少政府营利性的准公共投资,增加事关国计民生的纯公共支出。     

我国上市公司财务杠杆对投资支出的影响

本文实证检验了我国上市公司中财务杠杆与投资支出之间的关系.结果表明,企业投资支出整体上同负债呈负相关关系.迸一步研究发现,投资支出与财务杠杆的关系受公司股权性质的影响,公司的国有股权性质使得投资支出对负债的敏感性降低.     

杠杆治理、预算软约束和中国上市公司绩效

在概述西方金融理论中债务融资的公司治理功能献之后．本主要探讨预算软约束下的杠杆治理是否有效这一学术问题。选用我国上市公司为样本，本发现随着银行贷款规模的增大，经理层的公款消费和自由现金流增大，企业效率和公司价值下降；然而，董事会成员替换频率没有显关系。在我国，债务融资非但没有提升公司治理，反而扩大了经理的代理成本。这一反常的金融现象来源于预算软约束，并且引致了我国的银行坏账问题。     

政策性负担、道德风险与预算软约束

本文在一个动态博弈的框架下 ,考察了政策性负担与转轨经济中企业的预算软约束问题。在信息不对称情况下 ,政策性负担将导致国有企业经理的道德风险 ,从而导致国有企业的低效率 ;当市场竞争达到一定程度时 ,政策性负担必然带来国有企业的预算软约束。而且 ,预算软约束同企业的公有制性质无关 ,在同样承担政策性负担的条件下 ,私有企业比国有企业更容易产生预算软约束 ,并且要求政府提供更多的补贴。当国有企业承担政策性负担时 ,政府剥夺企业的生产自主权往往是一种次优的制度安排     

浅析政策性负担与杠杆治理失效——一个预算软约束视角下的理论模型

本文以预算软约束理论为基础,通过对经济转型时期我国企业面临的制度环境进行分析,指出地方政府转移到企业身上的政策性负担是软化预算约束的来源,并通过构建预算软约束下银行与企业之间的博弈模型,对杠杆治理失效的现象进行理论诠释.     

预算软约束下的公共项目监管机制:现状与对策

政府的投资冲动是突破预算约束的内在动力,现行的行政体制下,同级政府部门之间缺乏硬性约束,由于公共项目预算的软约束,导致地方政府的债务风险很大。文章在对我国现行公共项目监管机制缺陷分析的基础上,认为厘清公共项目中的责任关系、建立责任追究制度、完善监管体系能够最大限度地提高公共项目建设资金的使用效率。     

The impact of corporate debt on long term investment and firm performance

Prior research indicates a linkage between debt, research and development (R&D) and physical investment, and that the relationship varies depending on the type of firm (science versus non–science). Leverage also plays a multidimensional role in corporate performance and growth. The relationship between financial leverage and R&D expenditure is analysed using a sample of large United States (US) manufacturing firms. Then, the impact of leverage on R&D expenditure is studied using corporate performance drivers as intermediate variables. The results indicate that there is a strong negative relationship between the degree of financial leverage and the level of R&D expenditure that firms undertake. The negative relationship is robust to changes in model specifications and sample periods. More importantly, the results show that it is higher leverage that leads to lower R&D expense rather than R&D causing variations in future leverage. In addition, the results indicate that higher leverage adversely influences future investment in R&D which may in turn lead to negative impact on long term operating performance and future growth opportunities.     

Corporate leverage and the terms of employment: evidence from French small businesses before and during the global crisis

Despite the particular importance of corporate leverage and human capital for small businesses, little is surprisingly known about the relationship between these two factors for this category of firms. Accordingly, this article tries to fill this gap by investigating the relationship between leverage and human capital examined through the investment in employee-related expenditure. The analysis focuses on a sample of French listed small businesses before and during the recent global crisis. The empirical findings show that leverage serves as a monitoring mechanism of corporate managers prone to over or underinvest in employee-related expenditure to obtain private benefits. Due notably to the availability of debt, this monitoring is more effective before the crisis period, especially for low growth firms. Overall, these results provide support to the theory that leverage has a disciplining role. Simultaneously, they lead to moderate the strength of this role according to the global crisis. Thus, they should provide useful insights for academics, regulators, managers and credit institutions.     

Corporate financial soundness and its impact on firm performance: implications for corporate debt restructuring in Slovenia

This article studies the extent of corporate leverage and range of excessive debt of Slovenian firms during the recent financial crisis. Half of all firms (of those with some non-zero debt and at least one employee) are found to face an unsustainable debt-to-EBITDA leverage ratio beyond 4, accounting for almost 80% of total outstanding debt. Moreover, a good quarter of all firms experience debt-to-EBITDA ratios exceeding 10 and hold almost half of total aggregate net debt. We then examine how this financial distress affects firm performance in terms of productivity, employment, exports, investment and survival. We find that, while less important during the good times (pre-recession period), lack of firms’ financial soundness during the period of financial distress becomes a critical factor constraining firm performance. The extent of financial leverage and ability to service the outstanding debt are shown to inhibit firms’ productivity growth as well as the dynamics of exports, employment and investment. Micro and small firms are found to suffer relatively more than larger firms from high leverage in terms of export and employment performance during the recession period.     

地方政府性债务治理与上市企业投融资*——基于我国247座城市的初步证据

本文利用中国社科院披露的我国247座城市地方政府性债务对金融稳定影响的评价指数,分析了地方政府性债务治理对上市企业债务融资与资本性投资效率的影响及其传导机理。研究发现,与地方政府性债务治理较好地区相比,处于地方政府性债务治理较差地区的地方政府控股国企,其杠杆率均显著较高,但企业资本性投资效率却显著较低,企业产能过剩的财务特征十分明显。这表明,地方政府性债务治理会显著影响微观企业的投融资,并且地方政府性债务治理越差,透过政府对经济活动的控制或干预,通过预算外举债,政府“杠杆”有转化为企业“杠杆”的风险。本文明确了“去杠杆”究竟应去谁的“杠杆”问题,对理解地方政府性债务治理转变为“内涵型”经济增长的微观基础具有重要的理论和现实意义。     

品牌效应与债务融资双重影响下的广告竞争行为

本文以广告投入较多的制造业与房地产业为研究对象,选取该行业上市公司2004—2007年的数据,实证分析品牌效应、债务融资双重影响下的企业广告竞争行为。研究结果表明:就强品牌企业而言,债务融资对产品市场具有软承诺作用;而在弱品牌企业中,债务融资表现为对产品市场的硬承诺作用。此外,不论强品牌企业的广告竞争策略存在与否,弱品牌企业的广告投资策略均不受影响。     

CORPORATE LEVERAGE AND THE BUSINESS CYCLE

This paper examines the pattern of corporate leverage in the United States during the 1980s. Firms in other countries increased their debt during this period. However, the United States was the only major industrialized country in which firms experienced increases in both leverage and interest burden. Previous studies analyzing the distribution of corporate debt across sectors in the United States concluded that to the extent a pattern is discernible, highly indebted firms are concentrated in the stable sectors. This study confirms this earlier finding but shows that the U.S. firms that have been increasing their leverage most rapidly have been concentrated in cyclical sectors.     

Corruption and corporate leverage in an emerging economy: The role of economic freedom

This study investigated the effects of corruption and economic freedom on corporate leverage. We also evaluated how economic freedom shapes the effect of corruption on corporate leverage. Using a sample of Vietnamese firms covering a nine-year period from 2010 to 2018, we find evidence that increased control of corruption has a significant positive impact on firm leverage, whereas the opposite is true for economic freedom. This effect is robust to alternative measures of control of corruption as well as advanced estimation methods, such as firm-fixed effects and quantile regressions. Our results also reveal that the positive impact of corruption controls on corporate leverage is more pronounced for firms with high economic freedom. Econometrically, our findings indicate that firms with better control over corruption prefer debt financing, as demonstrated by their higher leverage ratio.     

财务杠杆对公司成长性影响的实证研究

本文认为财务杠杆对公司成长性具有积极、消极双重影响.鉴于现有文献中财务杠杆对公司成长性的消极作用,本文选取1998-2001年深沪两市2798个混合样本作为研究对象,研究上市公司在不同经营业绩条件下财务杠杆对成长性的影响.研究结果表明,与国内外已有的研究结果不同,不同经营业绩下公司财务杠杆对成长性的影响作用存在差异.对于业绩优良的公司,财务杠杆具有积极作用,举债经营可以促进公司的成长,而且,随着公司业绩的增强,财务杠杆所起的积极作用更为显著;对于业绩较差的公司,财务杠杆具有消极作用,财务杠杆对成长性有一定的抑制作用.     

Distress cost and corporate financing policy: evidence from the equity options market

This study examines the link between distress cost and corporate financing policy through the lens of the equity options market. Four features stand out. First, the cost of distress is comparable to the tax shield from debt financing. Second, the results provide evidence that ordinary least-squares estimates understate the impact of market leverage on default risk. Third, consistent with the information models of debt maturity, firms with higher default probability use more long-term debt. Finally, more distressed firms rely on secured debt to a greater extent. Overall, the results support the trade-off theory of capital structure.     

The Influence of Financial Factors on Corporate Investment

Abstract
Recent theoretical developments have shown that cash flows and the structure of a firm's balance sheet may have an important influence on investment. Establishing a link between cash flows, leverage and investment provides insights into the way that monetary policy and cyclical factors more generally influence the corporate sector. If cash flows are an important determinant of investment then changes in monetary policy (by changing interest rates) will influence investment through a cash flow effect as well as through altering the rate at which the returns to investment are discounted. If this is the case, the higher leverage of the corporate sector implies, other things being equal, that monetary policy may have a larger impact on investment than in the past .
In this article we use panel-data analysis to examine the impact of financial factors on investment decisions of firms in the Australian corporate sector. We find strong support for the influence of financial factors on investment decisions. Leverage, internally generated cash flows, and the stock of cash and liquid financial assets are all important influences on investment behaviour, particularly for smaller firms, highly leveraged firms, and firms with high retention ratios .