The effects of credit lines on cash holdings and capital investment: Evidence from Japan

This study examines how credit lines affect corporate cash holdings and capital investment using a hand-collected data on publicly traded Japanese firms from 2006 to 2017. The study compares firms with and without credit lines to investigate the effects of credit lines. The empirical results are as follows: (1) Firms with credit lines hold smaller cash reserves than those without; (2) Firms with credit lines undertake more capital investment than those without; (3) The effects of credit lines are more amplified for financially constrained firms than their counterpart; (4) A close bank–firm relationship plays a positive role in the effect of credit lines on corporate activities.These empirical findings indicate that credit lines can improve firms’ financial flexibility and allow them to use cash holdings held for precautionary reasons to invest. The results also show that credit lines and the attendant implicit bank–firm relationships are complementary to each other. Moreover, having both credit lines and a close bank–firm relationship is important to Japanese firms for their corporate activities. Furthermore, the results imply that the use of credit lines is still relatively undeveloped in Japan, which may be a reason for the country's large corporate savings and lackluster investment.     

What Do Changes in Corporate Ownership in Indonesia Tell Us?

This article documents the pattern of corporate ownership in Indonesia before and after the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis. We draw on an original dataset that identifies ultimate owners of the country’s 200 largest publicly listed corporations in 1996 and 2008, and supplement these data with additional information about unlisted firms. Corporate ownership and business–government relations in this period exhibited continuities as well as notable changes. Although family ownership remained the most prevalent form of ownership, there was considerable churning in the identities of the most powerful family owners. Listed state-owned corporations were more prominent after the crisis than before it, and foreign governments (particularly Singapore and Malaysia) substantially increased their ownership stakes in many of Indonesia’s largest corporations.     

Extreme divorce: the managerial revolution in UK companies before 19141

We present the first broadly representative study for any early twentieth‐century economy of the extent to which quoted company ownership was already divorced from managerial control. In the 337 largest, independent, UK companies in the Investor's year book (those with £1 million or more quoted share capital in 1911), the generality of public shareholders were a narrower group than today, but directors personally owned only 3.4 per cent of the shares. This indicates a lower level of personal ownership (and board voting control) in the largest securities market of the early twentieth century than in any of the world's major securities markets toward the end of that century. Berle, Means, Gordon, and others subsequently quantified the US's later and (on this dimension) less advanced managerial ‘revolution’. Their evidence was widely misinterpreted: some erroneously concluded that the US pioneered this aspect of ‘modernity’ and that the ‘divorce’ of ownership from control, globally, was a new and continuing trend.     

The diffusion and impact of the corporation in 1910

With new and comprehensive data on the international spread of listed and unlisted corporations before the First World War, this article shows the prominence of common law and Scandinavian civil law in the process. This association is interpreted as demonstrating the strong contribution of liberal (laissez‐faire) industrial stances. The findings confirm an extended version of Rajan and Zingales's hypothesis that trade and capital openness are necessary for companies to flourish. Despite the possibilities that companies were created for fraud and exploitation, countries using the corporate form more extensively before 1914 had higher GDP per capita. Through this process, the benefit of imperialism extended to British dominions, but not much, if at all, to British dependent colonies.     

Shareholder rights and share capital: the effect of the 1901 Russian Corporation Reform, 1890–1905

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, western European countries introduced general incorporation and additional flexible enterprise forms, but the Russian Empire left its concession system of incorporation in place. The Empire's only major corporation reform, the 1901 law, strengthened minority shareholder rights and removed bankers from boards of directors for certain corporations. The reform offers a rare opportunity to examine the financial effects of improving corporations’ principal–agent relationships through regulation, because the reform did not affect all corporations equally. Corporations affected by the reform had smaller total share capital, fewer shares, and higher par values for shares as observed in 1905. The new regulations may have increased the cost of having shareholders and hence disciplined corporations’ founders to be more conservative in raising capital by issuing stock. Removing bankers from boards of directors may have removed an important source of firms’ founding capital, though corporations could easily evade this provision. The results also show that, although the commercial code treated all corporations equally, there were two major groups of Russian corporations that behaved differently, and, despite the fact that corporate charters could grant individual exceptions to the commercial code, a revision in the commercial code changed corporations’ behaviour.     

公司治理、大股东资金占用与盈余质量

论文从大股东资金占用行为的影响因素与行为后果两个角度出发,研究公司治理机制与大股东资金占用行为的关系以及大股东资金占用行为与盈余质量的相关关系。研究结果发现：第一大股东控制程度越高,其占用上市公司资金的可能性越大并且这种现象在国有控股上市公司中更为严重,公司治理综合水平对大股东资金占用程度起到了有效的抑制作用,大股东这种资金占用行为对企业盈余质量具有显著的影响。     

解读企业所得税“两法合并”及相关政策的调整——从税收筹划的角度兼论企业的应对措施

我国旧有的企业所得税按内资、外资企业分别立法、分别征收的制度一共实施了10多年,期间伴随着我国经济社会情况发生的巨大变化,此种分立模式所固有的弊端也逐渐暴露出来,因此对企业所得税进行"两法合并"及相关政策的调整势在必行。本文拟从论述新形势下分立模式所暴露的弊端入手,有针对性地对最新出台的新企业所得税法相关政策进行解读,并就企业如何从税收筹划的角度应对调整的政策提出措施意见。     

论我国公司资本制度的选择——新、旧公司法的对比与改进

公司资本制度决定着公司的成立及其营业的开展,也影响着公司债权人的债权能否实现以及交易安全的维护。公司资本制度的选择过程,是对不同公司资本制度价值理念的认知过程。同时,我们还必须研究世界各国家的立法例,以期能被我国公司资本制度的选择所借鉴。本文对我国旧公司资本制度进行了检讨,并对域外各国公司资本制度进行研究分析,对我国新《公司法》中的公司资本制度的安排进行了分析,并给出了完善我国公司资本制度的建议。     

上市公司之企业规模与资本结构的关系研究——以新疆上市公司为例

国内外很多研究成果表明,企业的发展规模与其资本结构之间存在着十分紧密的关系,于是我以新疆上市公司为样本,利用其相关数据建立起新疆上市公司的资本结构和公司规模的线性回归模型,以定量的分析方法来阐述他们之间的这种联系。回归结果表明新疆上市公司的公司规模与负债水平呈正相关,与企业的经营能力负相关,与每股收益呈正相关的关系。在实证分析结果的基础上,所以新疆企业要走出去西部,走向世界,就应从资本结构和公司规模相结合的角度制定企业战略,建设出一流的企业。     

The character and denomination of shares in the Victorian equity market1

The seminal work of J. B. Jefferys highlighted two unusual features of the Victorian equity market, namely high share denomination and uncalled capital. This article examines the extent to which publicly traded company stocks in the nineteenth century had these features. It also analyses the effect of these features on stock returns using monthly data for the London Stock Market over the period 1825–70. We find that stocks with unpaid capital earned a higher return, which is consistent with investors being rewarded for the risk of a call on their personal assets. We also find that stocks with a high share denomination earned a lower return, which is consistent with the view that this feature was conducive to superior corporate governance.     

Tax‐Avoidance Activities of U.S. Multinational Corporations*

This paper investigates whether economies of scale exist for tax planning. In particular, do larger, more profitable, multinational corporations avoid more taxes than other firms, resulting in lower effective tax rates? While the empirical results indicate that, ceteris paribus, larger corporations have higher effective tax rates, firms with greater pre‐tax income have lower effective tax rates. The negative relation between effective tax rates (ETRs) and pretax income is consistent with firms with greater pre‐tax income having more incentives and resources to engage in tax planning. Consistent with multinational corporations being able to avoid income taxes that domestic‐only companies cannot, I find that multinational corporations in general, and multinational corporations with more extensive foreign operations, have lower worldwide ETRs than other firms. Finally, in a sample of multinational corporations only, I find that higher levels of U.S. pre‐tax income are associated with lower U.S. and foreign ETRs, while higher levels of foreign pre‐tax income are associated with higher U.S. and foreign ETRs. Thus, large amounts of foreign income are associated with higher corporate tax burdens. Overall, I find substantial evidence of economies of scale to tax planning.     

FDI对我国电子工业生产率的行业内溢出效应研究——以1996—2001年43个细分行业为例

本文考察了外资对中国电子工业劳动生产率的影响。利用1996—2001年期间电子行业的9大部门和43个细分行业的面板数据,并按照无形资产比率、出口比率和国有资本比率对43个细分行业进行了分组检验,我们发现,1996—2001年期间中国电子工业的劳动生产率呈现明显的外商直接投资的溢出效应,并且在不同的行业呈现较大的波动。在无形资产比率高、出口比率高、国有资本比率高的行业,外资对劳动生产率的促进作用显著,而在国有资本比率低、技术含量低的行业,外资对劳动生产率的促进作用不显著。国有企业在促进劳动生产率提高方面具有积极作用,说明国营企业引进外资是一种长期有效的学习跨国公司经验的途径。而且,跨国公司通常被高生产率的电子行业所吸引,在这些行业溢出效应明显存在,但对于一些外资比率低的电子行业,这种正溢出效应不显著。

Abstract：

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment（FDI）on the labor productivity of China’s electronics industry. Using panel data of 9 major sectors and 43 sub-sectorsof the electronics industry during the period 1996—2001,and doing group test according to the ratio of intangible assets,the export ratio and the state-owned capital ratio of the 43 sub-sectors,we find that during 1996—2001,labor productivity of the Chinese electronics industry showed significant spillover effects of FDI and large fluctuations in different industries. In industries that have high intangible assets ratio,high export ratio and high state-owned capital ratio,FDI played a more significant role in promoting labor productivity than in industries that have low state—owned capital ratio and low technology contents. State-owned enterprises has a positive effect in promoting labor productivity,indicating that introducing foreign investment is an effective long term route to learn transnational corporations’ experience for state-owned enterprises. Moreover,transnational corporations are always attracted to higher productivity sub-sectors,implying significant spillover effects in these industries,while in sub-sectors with low rate of foreign invest-ment,the spillover effect is not significant.     

政治关联、金融生态环境与股权资本成本--基于2005-2012年的数据分析

建立政治关联是很多公司试图降低股权资本成本的重要途径。作为公司理财的外部环境,不同的金融生态环境影响着政治关联的股权资本成本效应。文章应用2005-2012年中国上市公司数据进行实证研究,结果表明：总体而论,我国企业通过建立政治关联可以降低股权资本成本;金融生态环境好的地区,政治关联对股权资本成本的降低效应弱于金融生态环境差的地区;金融生态环境综合指数高于0.739的地区,建立政治关联会提高股权资本成本;金融生态环境越差的地区,政治关联对股权资本成本的降低效应越强。     

Foreign Multinationals and Local Firms in Vietnam's Economic Transition*

This paper compares the economic performance of foreign multinational corporations (MNC) and local firms in Vietnam, distinguishing between two distinct types of local firms: state‐owned enterprises (SOE) and non‐SOE. Between the mid‐1990s and 2000, foreign MNC in Vietnam's economy grew very rapidly, but their growth has been much slower thereafter. Consistent with the theoretical suggestion that MNC possess relatively large amounts of firm‐specific assets related to production technology, marketing networks and management know‐how, these comparisons suggest that foreign MNC were generally larger and had higher labor productivity, capital intensity, wage levels, investment propensities and trade propensities than non‐MNC. On the other hand, foreign MNC tended to have relatively low capital productivity and wage shares of value added, while results regarding profitability were mixed. In general, these differentials tended to be relatively small between foreign MNC and SOE, and SOE tended to be larger than foreign MNC in terms of employment. Correspondingly, comparisons of foreign MNC with non‐MNC generally revealed more consistent differences, largely because the local private sector is still very underdeveloped in Vietnam.     

Missing Household Saving and Valuation of Corporations: Inquiry into Japanese National Accounts I

The Japanese household sector has suffered a capital loss of some 400 trillion yen (in 1990 consumption prices) since 1970. This is a large enough loss to explain the Japanese recession of the 1990s. We can trace some three fourths of this capital loss to the loss in the market value of Japanese corporations relative to their accounting value (at reproduction cost). The behavior of the corporate sector leading to this loss is obscured because, in the Japanese National Accounts, the corporate sector contains both private and public enterprises, and information presented for this sector is seriously incomplete. Nevertheless, data suggest that corporations have attempted to maximize their productive capacity rather than their market value and overinvested in plant and equipment since at least 1970. An unusual corporate governance structure in Japan may have permitted and even induced corporate management to follow such a strategy. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations to improve the presentation of these issues in the National Accounts. J. Japan. Int. Econ., June 2002, 16(2) pp. 147–176. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 and NBER. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C82, E21, E22, G30.     

Ownership structure and corporate governance in Chinese stock companies

This study investigates whether ownership structure significantly affects the performance of publicly listed companies in China within the framework of corporate governance. A typical listed stock company in China has a mixed ownership structure with three predominant groups of shareholders—the state, legal persons (institutions), and individuals—each holding approximately 30% of the stock. Ownership is heavily concentrated. The five largest shareholders accounted for 58% of the outstanding shares in 1995, compared with 57.8% in the Czech Republic, 79% in Germany, and 33% in Japan. Empirical analysis shows that the mix and concentration of stock ownership do indeed significantly affect a company's performance. First, there is a positive and significant correlation between ownership concentration and profitability. Second, the firm's profitability is positively correlated with the fraction of legal person shares, but it is either negatively correlated or uncorrelated with the fractions of state shares and tradable A-shares held mostly by individuals. Third, labor productivity tends to decline as the proportion of state shares increases. These results suggest the importance of large institutional shareholders in corporate governance, the inefficiency of state ownership, and potential problems in an overly dispersed ownership structure.     

Does Schooling Promote Economic Growth?

Abstract: This paper revisits the debate on schooling and economic growth with particular reference to the case of sub‐Saharan Africa. Following the endogenous growth model developed by Lucas (1988) that considers human capital as one factor of production and schooling as a means of human capital accumulation, two results of schooling are explicitly stated: accumulation of privately owned and publicly owned human capital. By developing a growth estimating equation containing these two types of schooling results from the model and confronting it with empirical data, the hypothesis that schooling has got growth effect is tested. The analytic result suggests that in the indicated economies, for the period covered by the study (1966–2000), schooling that leads to accumulation of publicly owned human capital is associated with per capita income growth. Likewise, the analysis provides supporting evidence for the argument that primary schooling level is more associated with growth than other levels of schooling.     

The Effects of Competition from S Corporations on the Organizational Form Choice of Rival C Corporations

Subchapter C of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code levies an entity‐level tax on corporate profits, whereas Subchapter S allows corporations meeting specific criteria to elect out of this tax. Despite these differences, C and S corporations regularly compete for customers and capital. We examine whether and the extent to which competition from S corporations influences the future organizational form choice of rival C corporations and explore outcomes of this choice. Using data for 4,462 private U.S. commercial banks grouped by Metropolitan Statistical Area during 1997–2010, we find that greater competition from S corporation banks increases the likelihood that rival C corporation banks convert to Subchapter S status. We estimate that the aggregate first‐year tax savings from S conversion exceed $372 million. Consistent with these savings being used to maintain competitive parity with rivals, we find that converting banks increase their interest rates on customer deposits and advertising intensity. Our findings provide insight into whether competition from tax‐advantaged firms influences the organizational form choice of rival tax‐disadvantaged firms.     

China's Nonfinancial Corporate Debt Dynamics

Since the global financial crisis broke out in 2008, China's nonfinancial corporate debt has been rising steadily and rapidly, posing serious threat to China's financial stability. China's rising corporate debt is mainly attributable to three factors: worsening capital efficiency, worsening corporate profitability and high funding costs. Based on a dynamic recursive model developed in the paper, we simulate the trajectories of China's corporate debt‐to‐GDP ratio, and find that if China fails to reverse the current trends in capital efficiency, corporate profitability and financing costs, China's nonfinancial corporate debt‐to‐GDP ratio will continue to rise without converging to a limit. Against most economists' intuition, given the current trends of changes in parameters, higher economic growth will not help China to escape the corporate debt trap. On the contrary, it will make China's corporate debt problem even worse. To avert a corporate debt crisis, China needs to speed up the structural reform and change the growth paradigm so as to enhance capital efficiency and firms' profitability, while reducing firms' financing costs.