Financial constraints on investments and credit policy in Korea

The Korean financial system has been characterised by government interference and a chronic shortage of funds. Since the 1960s the government has promoted the financing of large, chaebol-affiliated firms. Towards the end of the 1980s, the government changed its focus from large firms to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study assesses the impact of this change in government policy on the financing constraints of different types of Korean firms. Using data on 198 Korean firms for the period 1991–1997, we estimate several specifications of a dynamic investment model to assess the financing constraints of Korean firms. We find that Korean firms suffered from informational asymmetries and severe financing constraints during this period, and that these imperfections differ across firms. Our findings suggest that the government’s change in focus towards SMEs has been successful in the sense that it has reduced financing constraints for these type of firms. We also find some evidence that firms with concentrated ownership are more financially constrained than firms with dispersed ownership.     

政府支出、金融发展、对外开放与企业投资

本文考察政府支出、金融发展与对外开放对企业投资的影响。整体上,政府支出显著的促进了企业的投资,而金融发展和对外开放程度对于企业投资则存在"挤出"效应,但是较高的金融发展水平和对外开放程度,提升了企业投资的效率;在东部地区,影响程度较基于全国的检验结果更显著;中部地区的政府支出和金融发展促进了企业投资,但其效率较低;西部地区的对外开放与政府支出并未显著影响企业投资;非东部地区的地方国企在对外开放中投资增加更为显著,而民营企业在投资机会的把握上体现了更高的效率。     

Investment by Korean conglomerates before and after the crisis

This paper analyzes the investment behavior of the Korean corporate sector before and after the 1997 financial crisis. Using firm-level data, we find that after controlling for investment profitability and cash flows, Korean conglomerates (‘chaebol’)-affiliated firms, particularly ones with low-managerial ownership, made significantly higher investments than non-chaebol firms before the crisis. In contrast, this difference in investment volume between chaebol and non-chaebol firms is no longer existent in the period following the crisis. We find the sharp reduction in investment by chaebols in the post-crisis period can be attributed mainly to the need to moderate their debt burden. It is not clear, however, whether these changes indicate an improvement in investment efficiency.     

Resource-Exhausted City Transition to continue industrial development

Resource-rich locations often rely on exporting the resources to prosper, but resource depletion is a matter of time. An industrial transformation is necessary to sustain economic growth when the comparative advantage fades away. This paper concerns the Resource-Exhausted City Transition program, a large-scale place-based policy of the Chinese state government. It applies firm data and examines impacts on industrial development in places suffering from resource-exhaustion. Estimation shows that the program has stimulated capital investment largely and fostered employment and efficiency as well, leading to a boost in output. The program does not favor the resource sector with little comparative advantage. It facilitates an industrial upgrade by extending the value chain towards the downstream and stimulating higher value-add activities. Effects are heterogeneous among firms with different capital intensity, age, size, ownership type, or regions.     

Old stocks,new owners: Two cases of ownership change in China's stock market

During the 1990s, ownership of China's listed firms remained stable: state entities remained in control of restructured state-owned enterprises since only a minority of shares were allowed to trade publicly and to be owned privately. However, since 1999, the ownership of China's listed firms has become more fluid due to the development of an off-exchange market in ‘legal person’ shares. This paper examines two such cases of ownership change. The case of Taitai's take-over of Lizhu shows that transfer of control is now occurring on a commercial basis. However, the Baiwen case shows that buy-outs are still being organized by government entities to support failing state firms. The deals suggest that while the government is using all means to restructure listed firms, rather than de-list them, it is also moving to create a competitive market in control.     

Financial Determinants of Corporate R&D Investment in Korea

This paper investigates the relationship between corporate investment in R&D and finance. By using panel data on Korean manufacturing firms between 1999 and 2008, we find that R&D investment is sensitive to fluctuations in internal cash flow and that debt is more important than equity in financing R&D expenditure. This empirical result supports the traditional theory of financing hierarchy. In relation to equity ownership, the empirical result shows that ownership concentration and foreign ownership positively affect R&D investment, but institutional ownership does not show any significant effect on investment. This study synthetically analyzes the relation between finance and investment by simultaneously considering corporate finance, equity ownership structure, macroeconomic environments and the institutional setting of Korea.     

Foreign direct investment and technology spillovers: Which firms really benefit?

Foreign direct investment is thought to contribute to host economies by increasing their efficiency either directly or through technology diffusion. Such efficiency benefits are neither equally produced by foreign firms nor equally distributed to all domestic firms. The special question addressed in this study is related to how differentiated such effects are depending on size and degree of (foreign) ownership. Based on a sample of 3,742 manufacturing firms operating in Greece in 1997, it is found that, while it is large, majority-held foreign firms that exhibit higher productivity, spillovers are important for small domestic firms and stem mostly from small joint ventures where the foreign partner owns a minor part of equity. JEL no. F23, O30     

The determinants of small and medium-sized firm internationalization and its relationship with productive efficiency

The Determinants of Small and Medium-Sized Firm Internationalization and Its Relationship with Productive Efficiency. — The creation of sale structures abroad (CSSA) is an intermediate stage in the process of internationalization when firms are small and foreign direct investment entail high sunk costs. This paper finds that ownership concentration (technological innovation, size, and age) negatively (positively) affects the CSSA decision and that, after controlling for the effect of access to foreign markets under the form of exports, CSSA firms are significantly more efficient than the control sample when efficiency is measured with a stochastic frontier approach. Ownership concentration seems to have two offsetting effects on efficiency: it increases participation to profits and therefore incentives to perform well, while it leads controlling shareholders to underinvest in risky ventures (such as internationalization).     

Monetary policy,cash holding and corporate investment: Evidence from China

This paper uses 13,766 firm-year observations between 2003 and 2013 from China to investigate the effects of monetary policy on corporate investment and the mitigating effects of cash holding. We find that tightening monetary policy reduces corporate investment while cash holdings mitigate such adverse effects. The cash mitigating role is especially significant for financially constrained firms, non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and those firms located in a less developed financial market. Cash holding also improves investment efficiency when monetary policy is tightening and tightening monetary policy enhances the ‘cash-cash flow’ sensitivity. Our empirical evidence calls for a critical evaluation on the monetary policies implemented in China which are less effective for state-owned enterprises. It also calls for a necessity for local government to further develop regional financial markets to protect vulnerable businesses, such as non-SOEs and financially constrained firms, from external shocks in order to maintain their sustainable growth and competitive advantages.     

Industrial groupings and strategic FDI

We show that industrial ownership structures, such as keiretsu groupings in Japan, may significantly impact firms’ incentives to engage in foreign direct investment (FDI). While the previous literature has mainly focused on the cost of capital advantages enjoyed by keiretsu firms, this paper examines two relatively unexplored channels by which ownership structure matters for FDI incentives. The first channel involves the direct incentives generated via standard product and factor market interactions whereby keiretsu firms with cross-ownership consider more directly the congestion effects of further FDI into a market. The second channel involves the indirect incentives generated by sharing of information across keiretsu firms which reduces entry costs of subsequent FDI. We find that keiretsu firms are more aggressive than non-keiretsu firms in their FDI strategies, that is, for any given parameter values they undertake FDI with a higher probability than independent firms. Furthermore, keiretsu firms adopt a more aggressive investment strategy against independent rivals than amongst themselves.     

FDI如何影响本地企业出口——来自中国制造业的发现

文章从理论上分析了外资进入影响本地企业出口行为的机制，并在构造外资溢出三类指标的基础上，运用1998-2007年中国制造业企业数据实证检验了外资溢出对本地企业出口参与决策和出口规模的影响。研究表明：（1）外资企业通过行业内水平溢出和行业间前向关联溢出显著促进了本地企业的出口参与决策，并提高了本地企业的出口规模；（2）外资行业间后向关联溢出对本地企业出口参与决策的影响不明显，但扩大了已出口企业的出口规模，控制内生性后结论仍成立；（3）外资进入对本地企业出口行为的影响因外资来源地和本地企业所有制性质的不同而存在显著的差异性。     

外资进入和我国企业的生产率：“溢出”抑或“挤出”效应

我国改革和开放是同时推进的,引进了众多外资企业来推动我国经济发展。那么,外资企业的进入是否有助于我国内资企业的成长？我们分析我国工业企业超大样本数据,探讨外资进入的影响,研究我国内资企业的生产率能否向效率前沿收敛。我们发现,我国不同类型的内资企业均存在效率前沿的收敛趋势,内外资企业生产率差距不断缩小。外资进入对我国内资企业的短期影响主要表现为溢出效应,但是对于同行业的其他外资企业呈现挤出效应,特别是其他独资外企。我们进一步发现外资进入的长期影响是挤出效应,但是对于国有企业和民营企业的影响却不尽相同。     

Foreign Ownership and Firm Innovation: Evidence from Korea

ABSTRACT

This study examines whether foreign equity investment promotes domestic firms’ innovation activities. Using panel data on the Korean firms during the 1999–2013 period, we find that foreign ownership has a positive effect on firms’ innovation activities. Furthermore, we also show that, as compared to non-chaebol firms, chaebol firms’ innovation activity becomes much greater with the increase of foreign ownership. Finally, we investigate industry-level spillover effects of innovation. Specifically, we find that foreign ownership promotes innovation activities via forward linkage, the effect of which is also more pronounced in chaebol firms.     

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN PRODUCTION IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF THE BRAZILIAN PLASTICS AND STEEL INDUSTRIES

This paper estimates firm specific indexes of technical efficiencyfor the Brazilian plastics and steel industries. Two differentindexes are employed for the empirical estimates—the Farrellindex and an index developed from a linear programming approximationof a nonstochastic frontier production function specified inthe Cobb-Douglas functional form. Evidence of substantial relativetechnical inefficiency is revealed. In both industries onlya very small proportion of all the observed firms were producingamounts of output greater than 80 percent of that technicallypossible on the estimated frontier. Relative efficiency of thefirms in the two industries was not seen to be significantlyrelated to ownership (foreign or government), but tests didsuggest a tendency for larger firms, possessing larger marketshares, to be closer to the frontier than smaller firms.     

知识产权保护、东道国特征与外商直接投资:一个跨国的经验研究

经济理论表明,加强知识产权保护强化了区位优势,使得跨国公司的所有权优势和内部化优势更加巩固,从而促使跨国公司以FDI方式代替出口贸易。但过强的知识产权保护又会降低跨国公司内部化的必要性,从而导致跨国公司以技术许可方式代替FDI。因此理论上,知识产权保护对FDI的影响是不确定的。为此,本文利用1976～2000年60个发展中国家的面板数据考察了知识产权保护对发展中国家FDI的影响。研究结果显示:加强知识产权保护对发展中国家FDI的影响受到经济发展水平、市场规模、吸收能力、开放政策、关税政策和制度质量等东道国特征的制约。知识产权保护对FDI的影响存在显著的行业特征:对于那些技术含量低或不易模仿的行业如劳动密集型和资本密集型行业,东道国知识产权保护强度对FDI的影响不显著;而对于那些技术含量高或较易模仿的行业如技术密集型行业,知识产权保护强度对FDI的影响非常显著。     

Can the Super-deduction of R&D Expenses Boost R&D Investment?

The super-deduction of research and development (R&D) expenses is at the core of the policy to stimulate enterprise innovation in China. This paper identifies whether firms are supported by the super-deduction policies for R&D expenses and uses the difference-in-differences method to investigate the impact of the policies on R&D investment. The results show that changes in policy in 2013 significantly increased the R&D investment of firms engaging in key state-supported technologies. Policy changes in 2016 significantly increased the R&D investment of firms engaging in non-key-state-supported technologies. Enterprises not only invested all their tax incentives in R&D activities but also increased their investment in self-raised funds. The super-deduction policy had different impacts on different industries, firms with different boards, and firms with different ownership. The policy significantly affected the manufacturing and construction industries, the Small and Medium Enterprise Board, and non-state-owned enterprises. Through a mechanism analysis, we found that the policy significantly reduced the user cost of R&D and increased the net cash flow of enterprises, which could raise a firm's R&D investment. It is necessary to increase policy support, expand the scope of super-deductible expenses, and increase the super-deduction rate based on industry classification according to the sensitivity of different industries to the policy.     

中国政府引导基金的引导效果及作用机理

文章使用我国创业投资机构的数据,分析政府引导基金的引导作用及其内部机理。实证研究表明,在获得政府引导基金资助后,创业投资机构向科技型初创企业显著增加投资,说明政府引导基金发挥了引导作用;相比国有创业投资机构,政府引导基金对民营创业投资机构的引导作用更强;相比非创新创业密集地区,政府引导基金在创新创业密集地区发挥的引导作用更大。进一步分析发现,政府引导基金主要是通过"信号传递效应"发挥引导作用,政府引导基金的"风险分担效应"不显著;政府引导基金引导的投资与完全市场化的投资没有显著的绩效差异,说明政府引导基金的引导作用是有效率的。文章不仅揭示了政府引导基金的作用机理,也为政府促进高新技术产业发展提供了政策启示。     

Do political connections affect corporate poverty alleviation decisions? Evidence from China

Programs to alleviate poverty by corporations are increasingly popular as a new form of corporate social responsibility. This study examines how the political connections of a firm's chairperson are associated with decisions to alleviate poverty based on a sample of listed Chinese firms from 2016 to 2018. We find that the chairperson's political connections increase the probability of participation and the amount of investment in programs to alleviate poverty. This positive relationship is mainly manifested in firms with high agency costs and low regional economic conditions. In addition, the chairperson's political connections are not related to the efficiency of the poverty alleviation program. Politically connected firms receive less government recognition with an increase in investment in poverty alleviation. Our findings are consistent with the notion that firms participate in poverty alleviation programs for reciprocal favor exchanges, but they fail to manage these programs efficiently.     

Firm Productivity and Mode of Foreign Expansion: Evidence from Taiwanese Manufacturing Firms

This paper builds on the recent literature on firm heterogeneity in international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), and aims to empirically examine how firm productivity affects a firm’s foreign market entry strategy beyond the simple binary choice between exporting and FDI. Utilizing the panel data of Taiwanese manufacturing firms during 2002–2012, we further classify FDI methods by whole ownership or a joint venture to investigate a firm’s foreign expansion decision. By performing Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) tests, we find that if a firm is more productive, it is more likely to choose FDI rather than exporting. However, productivity of firms choosing whole ownership is not so different from choosing a joint venture. Furthermore, a more productive firm is more likely to conduct both whole ownership of the foreign subsidiary and a joint venture formation in the case of FDI.     

Ownership structure and firm performance: Evidence from the Chinese corporate reform

We employ a new classification of ownership identity to analyze the impact of ownership structure on enterprise performance in China. Using both fixed effects model and Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM), this study finds that marketized state-owned enterprises outperform firms controlled by the government, indicating that partial privatization of state-owned Chinese firms improves corporate governance. Non-controlling large shareholders of marketized state-owned enterprises and private enterprises are found to play active roles in corporate governance. Lastly, there is evidence that ownership concentration of a controlling shareholder decreases the incentives to expropriate minority shareholders.