Capital structure and corporate governance quality: Evidence from the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS)

Grounded in agency theory, this study explores how capital structure is influenced by aggregate corporate governance quality. We measure governance quality using broad-based comprehensive governance metrics provided by the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). The empirical evidence reveals a robust inverse association between leverage and governance quality. Firms with poor governance are significantly more leveraged. It appears that leverage substitutes for corporate governance in alleviating agency conflicts. Further, we utilize empirical methods that control for endogeneity and show that poor governance quality likely brings about, and does not merely reflect, higher leverage. Our results are important as they show that the overall quality of corporate governance has a material impact on critical corporate decisions such as capital structure choices.     

Capital structure in South Korea: a quantile regression approach

Knowledge of how South Korean firms choose their capital structures has particular value due to the country's specific corporate structure and the role of leverage in the evolution of its financial crisis of 1997 and recovery. Using a large panel for the years 1992–2001, we investigate the evolution and determinants of Korean firms' capital structure and focus on differences between firms in different quantiles of the debt–capital distribution. Conditional quantile regressions show that while variables associated with standard models of asymmetric information costs are significant throughout the distribution, there are considerable differences, including differences in sign, in their impact on firms with different degrees of leverage. Those observed nonlinearities in the determinants of capital structure are consistent with a model of capital structure that includes both costs resulting from asymmetric information and an upper bound on the debt–capital ratio.     

Investment-based optimal capital structure

This paper extends the classical capital structure model by introducing the output of firm with ‘AK’ production technology dynamically depends on the endogenous investment decision and capital accumulation. Based on our calibration, it shows that the flexibility of dynamic investment and capital accumulation induces the firm to take the lower leverage at financing time and makes the leverage estimate closer to empirically observed leverage ratios, which provides an effective explanation for the ‘under-leverage puzzle’. In addition, this model predicts that the market leverage behaves in a U-shaped manner with capital liquidity, which provides a novel empirical test.     

The Role of a Firm’s Net Cash Payouts in Leland’s (1994) Model

We study the effects of introducing payouts on corporate debt and optimal capital structure in a structural credit risk model à la Leland (1994) . We find that increasing the payout parameter not only affects the endogenous bankruptcy level, which is decreased, but modifies the magnitude of a change on the endogenous failure level as a consequence of an increase in risk‐free rate, corporate tax rate, riskiness of the firm and coupon payments. This simple analytical framework is able to capture realistic insights about optimal leverage, spreads and default probabilities more in line with historical norms (if compared to Leland’s results) and closer to predictions obtained through more sophisticated models.     

简论资本结构、公司治理及股权分置改革

资本结构在公司治理中具有十分重要的地位,但是我国长期存在的股权分置问题,严重影响了资本结构治理作用的发挥.通过改革前后资本结构的变化,分析了股权分置改革对上市公司资本结构与公司治理的影响,并提出了进一步的改进建议.     

机构投资者"分心"与公司杠杆操纵

本文以机构投资者在其投资组合中注意力分配差异而产生的不同“分心”程度作为识别监督外在变化的手段,验证了其对企业杠杆操纵的重要影响。研究发现,上市公司会趁机构投资者“分心”而监督弱化时实施更多杠杆操纵行为,经稳健性检验后该结论依然成立。影响机制分析发现,机构投资者“分心”通过弱化其监督治理效应、降低公司股价信息含量进一步加剧企业杠杆操纵现象,使得企业得以隐藏真实杠杆水平,误导债权人以更低的资本成本借出资金,但也为企业的未来埋下隐患,致使企业潜在债务违约风险与财务风险增大。此外,在机构投资者“分心”加剧企业杠杆操纵的关系中,“去杠杆”政策实施和去杠杆压力发挥了正向调节作用。本文丰富了机构投资者“分心”经济后果研究,也为监管部门强化对企业监管提供了重要启示。     

The determinants of capital structure in transitional economies

This study investigates whether capital structure determinants in emerging Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries support traditional capital structure theory developed to explain western economies. The empirical evidence suggests that some traditional capital structure theories are portable to companies in CEE countries. However, neither the trade-off, pecking order, nor agency costs theories explain the capital structure choices. Companies do follow the modified “pecking order.” The factors that influence firms' leverage decisions are the differences and financial constraints of banking systems, disparity in legal systems governing firms' operations, shareholders, and bondholders rights protection, sophistication of equity and bond markets, and corporate governance.     

所有权性质、多元化和资本结构内生性

本文采用1999—2003年间上市公司的数据,在分析我国企业资本结构决定因素的基础上,对多元化与资本结构的关系进行了研究。我们的研究表明,所有权性质对我国企业多元化与资本结构的关系有着显著的影响:对于国有控股企业,多元化会造成其财务杠杆的显著提高;对于非国有控股企业,这种影响并不显著。多元化动机的差异可能是造成这种现象的原因。共同保险理论可以解释国有控股企业资本结构的显著改变;对于非国有控股企业,我们没有发现内部资本市场失效的证据。     

中国上市公司资本结构与企业价值的相关性研究：来自中国医药制药业A股上市公司的经验数据

合理的资本结构有利于公司行为的规范以及公司价值的提高,有利于实现股东财富最大化的财务目标。以中国医药制造业上市公司为例,通过对资本结构与企业价值的关系的实证研究,得出如下结论：中国医药制造行业的负债水平相对较低,而短期负债所占比重太大;资本结构与企业价值之间并不存在显著的相关关系。最后提出建议：医药制造业上市公司应该增加债务融资,尤其应该增加长期债务比重。     

管理者股权激励、内部资本市场与公司多元化

以我国多元化公司中管理者利用内部资本市场进行资金错配攫取私利行为为背景,研究管理者股权激励对多元化公司内部资本市场效率和公司价值的影响。通过建立双重委托代理模型,选取2009-2014年我国A股上市公司面板数据进行实证检验。结果发现：①多元化公司内部资本市场效率随管理者股权激励水平的提高而提高;②管理者股权激励水平提高最终导致多元化公司价值增加,内部资本市场在其中起部分中介作用;③公司多元化水平影响管理者股权激励对内部资本市场效率和公司价值的促进效应。     

The effects of China’s split-share reform on firms’ capital structure choice

China’s split-share structure reform in 2005–2006 mitigates agency conflicts between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders and thus may bring substantial changes to corporate financing behaviour. This article examines the impact of that reform on the capital structure decisions of firms by applying a variety of trade-off and pecking-order models. Using data from 1176 non-financial Chinese listed firms during the period 2000–2012, we present empirical evidence indicating that equity tracks the financing deficit better than debt in Chinese firms, a finding which is not consistent with pecking-order theory. This phenomenon is more prominent after 2006 as share reform increases trading activity in the secondary stock market and improves the transparency of financial markets. In addition, Chinese firms have an optimal leverage ratio and they adjust below-target leverage ratios faster than above-target leverage ratios after the implementation of share structure reform, although they make symmetric adjustments towards the target leverage ratio before 2007. Finally, recent share reform has prompted Chinese firms to more quickly address the divergence of actual leverage ratios from long-term target levels, but has slowed their response to short-term target leverage divergence.     

Functional form issues in the regression analysis of financial leverage ratios

Linear models are typically used in the regression analysis of capital structure choices. However, given the proportional and the bounded nature of leverage ratios, models such as the tobit, the fractional regression model and its two-part variant are a better alternative. In this article, we discuss the main econometric assumptions and features of those models, provide a theoretical foundation for their use in the regression analysis of leverage ratios and review some statistical tests suitable to assess their specification. Using a dataset previously considered in the literature, we carry out a comprehensive comparison of the alternative models, finding that in this framework the most relevant functional form issue is the choice between a single model for all capital structure decisions and a two-part model that explains separately the decisions to issue debt and, conditional on the first decision, on the amount of debt to issue.     

The firm information environment and capital structure: international evidence

This article investigates the effect of the firm information environment, characterized by the analyst characteristics, on firms’ capital structure choices and whether this effect varies according to country-level institutional environments. Using a comprehensive international data set that covers 19 939 firms across 41 countries between 2000 and 2010, we document two key findings. First, firms with lower analyst coverage, higher forecast dispersion and higher forecast errors have higher leverage. Second, the effect of the firm information environment on corporate leverage is attenuated in countries with stronger governance mechanism and better information transparency. This result suggests that a firm’s information environment is an important factor influencing its capital structure decision and that country-level institutional environments matter to this effect.     

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.     

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。     

高管背景特征与资本结构动态调整——国际比较与中国经验

从国际数据来看,不仅各国间的公司负债水平存在差异,而且一国内的公司资本结构也存在行业差异与时间差异。这说明资本结构选择的确存在动态调整现象。本文根据资本结构局部调整模型,运用GMM方法估算出我国A股市场上市公司的资本结构调整速度,并考察公司高管背景特征对调整速度的影响。研究发现,与其他国家相比,我国上市公司资本结构的调整速度相对较慢;高管性别、年龄、任期、教育程度、政治身份、两职兼任情况会对公司资本结构调整产生显著影响。     

The repatriation incentive of the foreign dividend exemption system

Due to the high taxation of domestic corporate income, Japanese multinational enterprises have avoided to repatriate foreign profits to Japan for quite some time. As a consequence, the Japanese government introduced a new taxation system in 2009 – the so called dividend exemption system – which was aimed at reducing the effective tax burden of foreign dividends of Japanese multinational companies in order to increase tax revenue and stimulate economic growth. Applying a theoretical framework which allows comparing the repatriation incentive of the old and new Japanese tax systems, we find that in the long-run the tax regime change fails to incentivize foreign subsidiaries to repatriate foreign profits. Especially subsidiaries with high leverage located in countries with low corporate taxes and low dividend taxes might reinvest rather than distribute their earnings in the dividend exemption method.     

高管个人社会资本与企业绩效之间的关系实证分析

本文收集并整理了357份调查问卷,并根据这些有效数据构建了结构方程模型,对高管的个人社会资本及它与企业绩效两者之间的关系进行了理论分析和实证研究.通过对实证结果分析可知,企业内部环境和外部环境下的社会资本是企业高管个人社会资本的组成部分;高管个人的社会资本与企业绩效之间存在并不显著的因果关系,只能通过企业适应能力显著影响企业的经济绩效.此研究结果是对已有研究结论的扩展及融合,证实了高管个人社会资本在整体上对企业绩效有着显著促进作用,同时也明确了高管个人社会资本与企业绩效间的作用路径.     

When do Heuristics Matter in Global Capital Markets? The Case of the BRIC Acronym

ABSTRACT

Several recent publications have argued that the use of heuristics by financial investors can distort global capital flows, but scholars have paid little attention to the scope conditions that determine when heuristics become influential (and when they don’t). Building on work in economic sociology and behavioural finance we suggest that the degree to which investment heuristics can bias aggregate capital flows depends on the levels of uncertainty and self-referentiality that structure the environments under which investment decisions are being made. Applying these insights to the two principal global markets for corporate investment, we argue that the institutional structure of markets for short-term portfolio equity investments (PEI) is far more conducive to trigger the mimetic adoption of a specific heuristic than in markets for long-term foreign direct investments (FDI). To test this hypothesis, we leverage the high level of arbitrariness of the selection of Brazil, Russia, India and China into the BRIC acronym and empirically examine the impact of its remarkable rise to prominence among communities of financial investors in the mid-2000s on global capital flows to emerging economies. In line with the theoretical argument, we find robust evidence of a strong BRIC-bias in markets for PEI but not FDI.     

资本结构与公司价值:理论综述

起源于20世纪50年代的资本结构与公司价值理论研究,经过经济理论工作者半个世纪的努力,其研究深度与研究范围都有了很大的拓展.从莫迪利亚尼和米勒的MM理论开始,虽然并没有得出一个逻辑一致的结论,但所有成果都支持现实经济中资本结构与公司价值密切相关,并且,在引入了不对称信息、代理成本等概念之后,新资本结构理论的研究结论更加接近现实.