Tax avoidance and the cost of debt for SMEs: Evidence from Spain

We investigate the effect of tax avoidance on the cost of debt for SMEs. Tax avoidance may increase a firm’s cash flows on one hand, but also increase the agency costs, the information risk, and the risk of scrutiny by tax authorities on the other, affecting the cost of debt in opposing ways. Using a sample of Spanish SMEs for the period 2007–2019, our findings show that tax-avoiding SMEs face lower debt costs, suggesting that the positive effects of tax avoidance prevail over the negative ones for SMEs. This finding is consistent with a more favourable assessment of SMEs’ tax avoidance activities by their key finance providers (banks), given SME unique characteristics and their lower agency costs.     

Modeling an early warning system for household debt risk in Korea: A simple deep learning approach

We construct an early warning indicator for household debt risk by analyzing the relationship between household debt and certain important macroeconomic determinants using a simple deep learning approach. A precise and informative indicator can help inform economic policies, especially in light of the recent growth in the ratio of household debt to income. Although several studies have analyzed the determinants of the household debt crisis, very few have examined early warning indicators for household debt risk. Some studies suggest that a situation can be regarded as a crisis if the household debt ratio is greater than 50% or 85%. However, as the household debt ratio in Korea is already over this threshold, this criterion is neither informative nor useful. Accordingly, we propose a transformed index that addresses long-term memory characteristics. Moreover, five categories for the degree of household debt crisis are considered instead of the binary variable that has been frequently used in previous studies. Furthermore, we use a well-known deep learning approach to find a non-linear relationship between crisis indices and many factors. The empirical results demonstrate that the proposed early warning indicator explains the household debt crisis quite well.     

Debt financing and maintenance expenditure: Theory and evidence on government-operated toll roads in China

Transportation infrastructure is the foundation of economic growth, and the existence of high-quality roads is inseparable from their durable maintenance. However, the burden of heavy debt has brought risks to maintenance management and distorted resource allocation. This study builds a two-stage optimal theoretical model under different debt-financing constraints in China, who has the longest expressway mileage of any country in the world. We establish the two principles of “spend-and-debt” and “debt-and-spend” to demonstrate the substitution effect and the complementary effect of debt financing on maintenance, respectively. Furthermore, we use a time-varying differences-in-differences approach to estimate the effect of the financing of tollway bonds on maintenance and further discuss the mechanism. The results provide evidence that there is a significant improvement in the relationship between tollway bonds and maintenance expenditure, mainly due to the reduction of debt costs and the passive propelling of the government’s spending responsibility. Our proposed theoretical and empirical framework sheds new light on transportation infrastructure research. More specifically, the impetus for public expenditure comes from a decrease of the substitution effect, which not only alleviates the burden of debt scale on the public sector but also provides a reference for developing countries to balance infrastructure construction and maintenance.     

Callable or convertible debt? The role of debt overhang and covenants

We analyze what role debt overhang and covenants have in a manager’s choice between issuing callable or convertible debt when a firm needs to issue a substantial amount of debt. Callable bonds provide a higher coupon in exchange for a repurchase option. Convertible bonds offer bondholders the option to exchange debt to equity. Using a dynamic capital structure model with investment choice, we find that callable debt implies a larger debt overhang friction, and for highly leveraged firms convertible debt is preferred. Moreover, if outstanding bonds have net-worth covenants attached, callable bonds are more likely to be issued. Our empirical findings support the theory.     

提高直接融资比重有助于提升企业价值吗?——基于短债长投的分析视角

采用中国地级城市2002-2022年面板数据和上市企业微观数据,研究城市直接融资比重对企业价值的影响。研究结果表明:(1)提高城市直接融资比重有助于提升企业价值;(2)提高城市直接融资比重通过降低企业“短债长投”水平提升企业价值;(3)对于资本市场信息不对称程度高和产品市场竞争程度高的企业中,提高城市直接融资比重能够更显著地改善企业融资行为,提升企业价值。研究结果为从区域金融结构角度理解企业融资行为与价值提升提供了微观证据;为企业降杠杆的有效环境提供了实证证据;为深化资本市场改革、改善企业融资环境、转变企业经营行为,从而促进企业长期价值增值提供了政策启示。     

PCAOB international inspection access and debt contracting: Evidence from American Depositary Receipt firms

We examine whether the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB’s) international inspection access affects the usage of accounting-based debt covenants in bank loan contracts of American Depositary Receipt (ADR) borrowers. We show that there is an increase in the use of financial covenants in debt contracts after the auditor of an ADR borrower becomes subject to PCAOB inspections. We also document that lenders increase the usage of financial covenants only in loans to ADR borrowers domiciled in countries with weak home country intuitions, and the increase is more pronounced for ADR borrowers from countries without a local auditor regulatory oversight body. These findings suggest that PCAOB regulatory oversight enhances the perceived credibility of accounting numbers for debt contracting and serves as a substitute for the weak monitoring of auditors for ADR borrowers domiciled in countries with weak country institutions.