Optimal size, optimal timing and optimal financing of an investment

Corporate investment is an important determinant of economic well-being. The existing literature identifies optimal investment size and timing without the possibility of debt financing, as well as the effect of debt financing on investment timing without the option to choose investment size. This paper contributes to the literature by identifying the optimal size, optimal timing and optimal financing for an investment when the firm controls all three decisions (as it usually does in practice). The investment size and investment trigger are generally positively related: when investment is delayed (accelerated) it is larger (smaller) in size, thus the overall effect on investment is ambiguous. However, when tax rate or bankruptcy cost is increased, the trigger rises and size falls, hence the effect on investment is unambiguously negative. The effect of debt financing on investment depends on the amount of debt used; with the optimal amount of debt, investment is delayed relative to the no-debt case, and this delay can be economically significant; however, the investment, when eventually made, will be larger in size. Overall, it is not appropriate to ignore either the firm’s ability to choose investment size or its option to use debt financing, when modeling the investment decision.     

Corporate finance side of the Q theory of investment

This paper presents a model of a firm under uncertainty in which the financial and investment decisions are simultaneously determined. If profits are small relative to investment, the firm finances a constant fraction of incremental investment by debt and the rest by retentions. If profits are large relative to investment, a constant fraction of marginal finance comes from debt and the rest from new shares. In these two financing regimes a one-to-one relationship between optimal investment and Q can be derived. No such relation exists in the third and intermediate regime in which incremental investment is entirely debt-financed.     

后危机时代负债融资与投资规模的实证研究——来自中国制造业上市公司的经验证据

负债融资与投资规模的关系研究是财务理论研究的重要课题之一.现代财务理论基于委托—代理理论和信息不对称理论的考虑,认为负债融资影响到企业的投资规模.负债融资、负债期限通过不同的传导机制影响着企业的投资规模.本文采用2008-2010年我国制造业上市公司数据,在控制对投资有影响的销售收入、托宾Q和现金流量等变量的基础上,实证检验了负债融资、负债期限与企业投资规模的关系及其影响机制.检验结果表明,负债融资总体上与投资规模负相关;然后,又按企业利润总额的标准差作为衡量企业风险的大小进行了分组检验,结果显示,短期负债、长期负债对投资规模的影响不尽相同,高风险企业随着负债的增加与低风险企业相比减少投资的幅度较小.这些结论对我国当前调整经济结构、制定宏观经济政策提供了有益启示.     

不同来源金融资本对企业研发投入的影响研究

以中小板上市公司为样本,就不同来源金融资本对企业研发投入的影响进行了理论分析与实证检验。结果发现：①内源融资与企业研发投入正相关,高成长性企业表现尤为显著;②政府补助与企业研发投入正相关,资产负债率与企业研发投入负相关,且资产负债率负向调节政府补助与企业研发投入的正相关关系。企业应适度控制债权融资水平,提高企业研发投入动机,并有效发挥政府补助对研发投入的积极作用;③风险投资、外商直接投资与机构投资者对企业研发投入的影响不显著。     

地方政府融资方式的地区差异及其影响机制

地方政府对融资方式的使用受地区特征约束，本文将当前两大融资方式——融资平台发行的城投债和PPP模式纳入统一视野，从经济发展、财政债务、市场开放三个层面的地区特征出发，运用2015—2020年的省级面板数据，构建融资方式依存度指标反映地方政府对融资方式的使用力度，探究地区特征对融资方式差异的影响机制。研究发现，地方政府的融资方式偏好映射为融资方式的地区差异，融资方式偏好受地区特征影响，且作用于两种融资方式的地区特征不同：显著影响城投债的地区特征与财政债务状况关联紧密，而显著影响PPP模式的地区特征与市场开放关联紧密。在综合财力异质性影响下，两种融资方式与地区特征间的关联得到进一步细化，低财力组中融资方式依存度与财政债务特征的关联性更弱。同时，城投债和PPP模式间的替代性可能导致PPP模式的优势无法体现。本文为明晰融资方式差异存在的原因提供了实证依据，可为优化地方政府融资结构提供参考。     

Debt overhang in a business cycle model

We study the macroeconomic implications of the debt overhang distortion on firms׳ investment and labor decisions. We show that the distortion arises when the levels of investment and labor are non-contractible and chosen after the signing of the debt contract. The financial friction manifests itself as investment and labor wedges that move counter-cyclically, increasing during recessions when the risk of default is high. Their dynamics amplify and propagate the effects of shocks to productivity, government spending, volatility, and funding costs. Both the size and the persistence of these effects are quantitatively important.     

Interactions of the firm's real and financial decisions

This paper provides an integrated approach to the theory of the firm. Under technological uncertainty, corporate taxes, risky debt and risk neutrality it is shown that the firm's investment production and financing decisions are made simultaneously. It is demonstrated that the relationship between optimal capital (or labour) and debt is not strictly negative as in Dotan and Ravid (1982) nor strictly positive as in Hite (1977). The direction of this relationship depends on the characteristics of debt and the characteristics of the firm's production function. Given the simultaneity of the real and financial decisions, it is shown that an interior optimum exists for the firm's value as a function of debt.     

Strategic debt service and investment decisions

Firms alter investing decisions when there is debt in the capital structure. Security design features can exacerbate the situation. This article studies how strategic debt service may affect investment distortions resulting from debt financing in a dynamic framework. When the production decision involves an expansion option, the shareholders’ option to strategically default on the outstanding debt eliminates bankruptcy costs but, in contrast to previous literature where production decisions are fixed, leads to suboptimal investing decisions. This is due to higher wealth transfers from shareholders to debt holders upon exercise of the growth option. Strategic debt service, therefore, may reduce the value of the firm. The setting of an endogenous production set offers a potential explanation for empirical observations of wide credit spreads and low leverage.     

Internal debt and welfare

This paper analyzes how multinational firms' internal debt financing affects high-tax countries. It uses a dynamic small open economy model and takes into account that internal debt impacts both the multinational firms' investment decisions and the government's tax policy. The government has incentives to redistribute income from firm owners to workers. If the government's redistributive motive is not too strong, internal debt reduces welfare in the short term by decreasing tax revenues. However, debt financing stimulates capital accumulation and exerts a positive long-term welfare impact.     

基于委托代理理论的非效率投资行为述评——以融资方式为主线

在现代财务理论体系下,由于委托代理冲突和信息不对称的存在,融资方式的选择将会影响到公司的投资效率。本文分别对新权益融资、内源融资和负债融资下,就委托代理冲突而导致的非效率投资问题进行了较系统的梳理和评论。在此基础上指出我国此类研究的不足主要在于忽视了我国资本市场特有的制度背景,对"完美资本市场"限制条件的不断放松为进一步的研究提供了思路。     

Growth and finance: An intertemporal model

Frequently, intertemporal models, for example, Uzawa's (1969) work on growth, are based on the separation of investment and the financing decisions of firms. Finance variables are disregarded. In contrast, along the lines of the theory of imperfect capital markets, the present paper allows for cross-effects between firms' financial structure and the value of firms. A steady-state analysis gives empirical predictions on the relation of investment, finance and debt, and Hopf-Bifurcation analysis establishes the possibility of cyclical paths.     

企业多元化战略与财务决策的关系：一个多视角的分析框架

本文试图从理论上系统分析在不同的多元化战略下(相关多元化和无关多元化)应采取何种财务决策。在结合不同理论视角的同时,分析企业不同的参与者类群(债权人,股东,高层管理者、部门管理者)的心理和行为决策。财务决策采用常用的分类:投资(长期和短期)、融资(权益融资和债务融资)和股利分配(高股利和低股利)。理论分析认为,相关多元化的公司倾向于进行长期投资,使用股权融资和低现金股利政策;无关多元化的公司倾向于进行短期投资,使用债权融资及高现金股利政策。     

Ownership, institutions, and capital structure: Evidence from China

We employ a unique data set to explore the role of ownership structure and institutional development in debt financing of non-publicly traded Chinese firms. We show that state ownership is positively associated with leverage and firms’ access to long-term debt, while foreign ownership is negatively associated with all measures of leverage. Surprisingly, firms in better developed regions are associated with reduced access to long-term debt, suggesting the availability of alternative financing channels and the tightening of the lending standards under the on-going banking reform. The combination of ownership structures and institutions explains up to 6% of the total variation in firms’ leverage decisions, while firm characteristics alone explain no more than 8% of the variation. Further, we show that non-state-owned firms tend to have lower total and short-term debt than their state-owned counterparts in less developed regions. Finally, we show that state-owned firms’ easy access to long-term debt is positively associated with long-term investment and negatively associated with firm performance.     

The composition of capital inflows when emerging market firms face financing constraints

The composition of capital inflows to emerging market economies tends to follow a predictable dynamic pattern across the business cycle. In most emerging market economies, total inflows are pro-cyclical, with debt and portfolio equity flowing in first, followed later in the expansion by foreign direct investment (FDI). To understand the dynamic composition of these flows, we use a small open economy (SOE) framework to model the composition of capital inflows as the equilibrium outcome of emerging market firms' financing decisions. We show how costly external financing and FDI search costs generate a state contingent cost of financing such that the cheapest source of financing depends on the phase of the business cycle. In this manner, the financial frictions are able to explain the interaction between the types of flows and deliver a time-varying composition of flows, as well as other standard features of emerging market business cycles. If, as this work suggests, flows are an equilibrium outcome of firms' financing decisions, then volatility of capital inflows is not necessarily bad for an economy. Furthermore, using capital controls to shut down one type of flow and encourage another is certain to have both short- and long-run welfare implications.     

公司最优股权结构分析

公司股权结构是各利益方相互博弈的结果。本文从企业融资渠道的角度出发,考虑在负债条件下的企业最优股权结构的确定。通过文献回顾股权与绩效之间的关系,分析出股权集中度对公司绩效影响的研究大体分为三大类:股权集中度与公司绩效正相关、不相关以及股权的分散性与公司绩效呈正相关关系;同时认为股权结构的内生性问题与绩效也有一定的显著性影响。本文采用Pagano和Roell(1988)提出的股权结构的形成模型,同时本文将在外部融资中加入债务融资进行分析。理论分析表明,企业的最优股权结构受企业债务融资决策的影响。在考虑债务融资的情形下,股东的持股比例与企业的价值是相关的,也就是说,企业的股权结构可能是内生的,它会随着企业经营境况的改变而改变,是股东间博弈的结果。     

R&D financing and growth

ABSTRACT

R&D investment are an important engine of growth and development. Yet economists have often claimed underinvestment, based on the consideration that these projects are more costly to finance, especially, due to the asymmetric information between inside and outside investors. Coherently, a recent empirical evidence has shown that firms intensively active in R&D are less leveraged and rely more heavily on internal finance. Motivated by this evidence, we study the effects of asymmetric information and financial frictions within a GE economy of Schumpeterian tradition. The model and equilibrium concept are rich enough to represent investment and innovation decisions, technology adoption/diffusion through patent licensing and, most importantly, firms' financial decisions. In this representation, R&D-intensive firms might effectively rely more on internal sources and equity than on debt financing, relative to what would happen in frictionless markets. Further, financial decisions affect aggregate investment and income dynamics.     

风险投资对上市公司投融资行为影响的实证研究

本文研究风险投资机构对上市公司投融资行为的影响机制和作用效果,结果发现:风险投资的加入不仅可以抑制公司对自由现金流的过度投资,而且可以增加公司的短期有息债务融资和外部权益融资,并在一定程度上缓解因现金流短缺所导致的投资不足问题。进一步研究还发现不同特征的风险投资机构均可起到抑制自由现金流过度投资的作用,但只有高持股比例、高声誉、联合投资或非国有背景的风险投资机构才能够显著地改善外部融资环境,缓解现金短缺公司的投资不足问题。综合本文研究结果,作者认为企业上市后仍然可以利用风险投资机构的监督职能、声誉资源和融资关系网络来解决代理问题和信息不对称问题,进而促进企业投融资行为的规范化和理性化。     

What determines outstanding corporate debt mix? Evidence from fractional multinomial logit estimation

This study employs the fractional multinomial logit setting proposed by Papke and Wooldridge (1996) to examine factors driving the choice among nonbank private (144A) debt, bank loans and public debt made by 988 nonfinancial firms during 1993–2007. We document that the majority of firm-level factors have persistent effects on corporate outstanding debt mix across economic conditions. We also highlight the importance of macroeconomic variables on firms’ borrowing decisions as predicted by Diamond (1991). Finally, we document a substitution effect among debt financing sources due to credit rating downgrades, which is inconsistent with Rauh and Sufi (2010).     

Financing constraints and investment efficiency: evidence from a panel of Canadian forest firms

This article examines the financial constraint of 18 listed Canadian forest firms between 2000 and 2014 following the stochastic frontier approach. Empirical results support the observation that Canadian forest firms have a strong dependence of using both equity financing and debt financing as the coefficients of both equity and debt financing mean functions are significant at 1% level. The distribution of investment efficiency index (IEI) of all 18 firms demonstrates a loss of around 40% of the rate of investment due to financing constraints. Regional analysis demonstrates that the time-varying patters of IEI of three provinces are significantly different.     

过度投资、公司业绩与债务融资——基于信息对称视角下的持续时间模型研究

基于信息对称的视角,通过建立持续时间模型,并用杠杆比率表示为投资项目进行融资的总成本中债务融资所占的比重来研究债务融资对过度投资和公司业绩的影响.结果发现:当信息是对称的情况下,公司如果发生过度投资便不会出现投资不足,并且债务融资占投资项目总成本的比重越高公司过度投资程度越大.