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.     

债务融资治理效应的实证评析

债务融资对于降低公司代理人成本、传达公司质量信号和争夺公司控制权都具有重要的债权治理作用.通过对近期债务融资治理实证研究成果进行的梳理和分析表明,包括中国在内的发展中国家普遍存在着债务融资治理功能缺失或低效率.由于该结论是基于财务杠杆作为唯一治理变量得出的,使其对于债务融资治理低效率的原因解释不够充分.今后应重视债权与股权治理的互动关系以及财务杠杆的内生性等问题的研究.     

公司资本结构与公司治理关系分析

资本结构是公司治理的基础和依据,不同的资本结构产生不同的公司治理机制。通过分析公司资本结构和公司治理之间的关系。阐明公司股权融资的治理效应和债权融资的治理效应。并针对我国上市公司在资本结构和公司治理结构方面存在的问题,提出降低代理成本,提高债务融资比例的对策与建议。     

An Applied Econometricians' View of Empirical Corporate Governance Studies

The economic analysis of corporate governance is in vogue. In addition to a host of theoretical papers, an increasing number of empirical studies analyze how ownership structure, capital structure, board structure, and the market for corporate control influence firm performance. This is not an easy task, and indeed, for reasons explained in this survey, empirical studies on corporate governance have more than the usual share of econometric problems. This paper is a critical survey of the recent empirical literature on corporate governance – to show which methodological lessons can be learned for future empirical research in the field of corporate governance, paying particular attention to German institutions and data availability.     

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.     

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。     

资本市场开放与企业真实盈余管理——基于“陆港通”的经验证据

资本市场开放不仅是扩大国际融资、更好地利用国际金融市场的需要,而且对我国资本市场发育和上市公司行为具有多重外部治理效应。本文借助我国内地与香港资本市场互联互通机制这一准自然实验,研究资本市场开放对企业真实盈余管理的影响。研究发现:(1)总体上,“陆港通”机制的实施显著降低了标的公司真实盈余管理程度。(2)委托代理问题是企业进行盈余管理的重要原因,而“陆港通”机制开通后,能够缓解标的公司代理矛盾,进而约束管理层的真实盈余管理行为。(3)当资本市场信息环境改善、管理层面临较大股票抛售压力以及大股东监督力度较强时,“陆港通”抑制企业真实盈余管理行为的治理效果更强。本文结果表明,资本市场开放有助于提高我国上市公司财务信息披露质量及公司治理水平。     

资本市场开放与企业真实盈余管理——基于“陆港通”的经验证据

资本市场开放不仅是扩大国际融资、更好地利用国际金融市场的需要,而且对我国资本市场发育和上市公司行为具有多重外部治理效应。本文借助我国内地与香港资本市场互联互通机制这一准自然实验,研究资本市场开放对企业真实盈余管理的影响。研究发现:(1)总体上,“陆港通”机制的实施显著降低了标的公司真实盈余管理程度。(2)委托代理问题是企业进行盈余管理的重要原因,而“陆港通”机制开通后,能够缓解标的公司代理矛盾,进而约束管理层的真实盈余管理行为。(3)当资本市场信息环境改善、管理层面临较大股票抛售压力以及大股东监督力度较强时,“陆港通”抑制企业真实盈余管理行为的治理效果更强。本文结果表明,资本市场开放有助于提高我国上市公司财务信息披露质量及公司治理水平。     

Corporate Governance and Financial Performance of Companies in Poland

The research presented in the paper is aimed at examining the relationship between the level of corporate governance and the financial performance of listed companies in Poland. The corporate governance degree is expressed by the outcomes of a rating of 2003 performed by Polish Corporate Governance Forum. The attempted models are of ordered multinomial type. Endogenous variable represents the rating outcome (A−, B+, B, B−, and C+), while the exogenous variables include various financial indicators evaluated on the basis of the 2002 financial statements. The estimated ordered logit models show that the level of corporate governance of companies in Poland is associated with their ability to cope with the financial distress, as expressed by the degree of liquidity, profitability and the financial leverage variables.     

WHAT DETERMINANTS AFFECT THE CAPITAL STRUCTURE OF CONSUMER CO‐OPERATIVES? THE CASE OF iCOOP KOREA

The capital structure of co‐operatives can differ from that of IOB (Investor‐Owned Businesses) since the two organizations differ in their aims, governance structures and decision‐making principles. This paper examines whether the determinants verified in IOB affect the leverage ratio of consumer co‐operatives. Consumer co‐operatives in South Korea have been rapidly growing during the last decade. There are two leading theories in finance that explain capital structure: the trade‐off and pecking order theories. Focusing on consumer co‐operatives in South Korea, the paper aims to analyze empirically what determinants have effect on the capital structure of consumer co‐operatives and which of the two theories is more plausible. This study reveals that profitability and firm size have a significantly negative effect on leverage while tangibility and growth have a significantly positive effect on it. In conclusion, it seems that neither of the theories above perfectly accounts for the capital structure of consumer co‐operatives because of the differences in governance characteristics between consumer co‐operatives and IOB as well as in the costs of bankruptcy, agency, informational asymmetry and securities issuance.     

股权结构与股权代理成本关系的实证研究——基于2011年创业板上市公司的数据研究

公司治理的基础是股权结构,核心问题就是如何降低代理成本,但是由于特殊的历史原因,我国股权分置制度存在的弊端严重影响着公司治理。根据代理理论,股权代理成本可以划分为管理层与股东之间利益冲突引起的第一类代理成本和控股股东与中小股东之间利益冲突引起的第二类代理成本。所以本文就基于股权分置改革后的视角,以2011年创业板上市公司为样本,采用理论与实证相结合的分析方法来分析股权结构与股权代理成本之间的关系,得出股权集中度可以降低第一类代理成本和第二类代理成本;股权制衡度在一定程度上可以降低第二类代理成本,但会提高第一类代理成本;负债也会有助于降低第一类代理成本;而管理层和机构投资者持股并未起到降低代理成本的作用。     

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。     

Tax Policy and Corporate Financial Structure in Korea

One of the issues of great policy concern in Korea has been the unusually high degree of financial leverage and the continuous deterioration of corporate capital structure. The capital structure existing at any one time and its change over time reflects corporate responses to the surrounding stimuli. To analyze the excessive leverage and the change in the corporate capital structure, this paper develops a theoretical model which takes into account the tax and nontax factors, both of which include general and Korea-specific aspects. The empirical test using the data of the last 25 years supports the hypotheses derived from the theoretical model. [320]     

Debt financing,soft budget constraints,and government ownershipEvidence from China1

Debt financing is expected to improve the quality of corporate governance, but we find, using a large sample of public listed companies (PLCs) from China, that an increase in bank loans increases the size of managerial perks and free cash flows and decreases corporate efficiency. We find that bank lending facilitates managerial exploitation of corporate wealth in government‐controlled firms, but constrains managerial agency costs in firms controlled by private owners. We argue that the failure of corporate governance may derive from the shared government ownership of lenders and borrowers, which nurtures soft budget constraints.     

Determinants of Corporate Governance in the Italian Financial Market

We evaluate the determinants of corporate governance of companies listed at the Italian Stock Exchange. We consider ownership structure, balance sheet data, company performance and some qualitative features as determinants. We evaluate the convergence of Italian companies' governance towards a system with effective governance mechanisms. Our analysis shows definitely that companies with a large shareholder and/or minority blockholders controlling a large stake and companies belonging to a pyramidal group or controlled by a shareholders' coalition are characterized by a poor governance/shareholders' protection standard. Institutional investors play a positive role .     

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.     

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。     

A dynamic estimation of governance structures and financial performance for Singaporean companies

In this study, a sample of 257 Singaporean domiciled non-financial listed companies is investigated using a system generalised method of moments (system GMM) estimator. This approach allows for controlling the potential sources of endogeneity which are inherent in the performance–governance relationship. Our findings strongly support the proposition that the relationship between corporate governance structures and firm performance is dynamic by nature. Moreover, our results show that the internal corporate governance structures do matter in Singapore, where the market for corporate control is relatively poor. This study is novel as it is the first to explore the corporate governance–firm performance nexus using a dynamic approach for the Singapore market. This study significantly contributes to a better understanding of international diversity on corporate governance by providing further empirical evidence from an emerging market characterised by the best corporate governance practices in the Asian region.     

The effect of religious piety on managerial entrenchment: evidence from entrenched boards of directors

Prior research shows that religious piety is linked to honesty and risk-aversion. Religious piety alleviates the agency conflict by lessening the motivation for managers to exploit shareholders. Because of its role in mitigating the agency conflict, we argue that religious piety influences corporate governance arrangements. We exploit the variation in religious piety across U.S. counties and show that religious piety significantly influences the probability that a firm has an entrenched (staggered) board of directors. In particular, firms located in an area with stronger religious piety are significantly less likely to have a staggered board. This negative effect, however, is significant only when the degree of religiosity is higher than a certain threshold. Further analysis reveals that our results are unlikely confounded by endogeneity. Our results are especially interesting as they demonstrate that non-financial attributes, such as religious piety, has a significant influence on one of the most crucial governance mechanisms, i.e. the board of directors.     

公司治理与技术创新关系的实证研究--基于中国省级区域面板数据

采用中国省级面板数据在区域层面对公司治理水平与技术创新之间的关系进行实证研究的结果表明：在控制了地区资本存量、人力资本存量、经济外向性、外商投资、信贷规模以及技术产出效率的差异之后,省级股东治理指数与省级R＆D资本存量之间存在显著的负相关关系,而省级经理层治理指数与省级R＆D技术创新资本积累却有显著的正相关关系。此外,随着地区生产要素投入和生产总值的增加、对外开放程度和技术效率的提升,地区经理层治理的影响不断增强,技术创新促进的效果也更加明显。