Can Managerial Discretion Explain Observed Leverage Ratios?

Can Managerial Discretion Explain Observed Leverage Ratios?
Author: Erwan Morellec
Publisher:
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2005
Genre:
ISBN:

This paper analyzes the impact of managerial discretion and corporate control mechanisms on leverage and firm value within a contingent claims model where the manager derives perquisites from investment. Optimal capital structure reflects both the tax adavantage of debt less bankruptcy costs and the agency costs of managerial discretion. Actual capital structure reflects the trade-off made by the manager between his empire-building desires and the need to ensure sufficient efficiency to prevent control challenges. The model shows that manager-shareholder conflicts can explain the low debt levels observed in practice. It also examines the impact of these conflicts on the cross-sectional variation in capital structures.

Theories of Optimal Capital Structure

Theories of Optimal Capital Structure
Author: Oliver Hart
Publisher:
Total Pages: 35
Release: 2008
Genre:
ISBN:

In the thirty or so years since the Modigliani-Miller theorem, scholars have worked to relax the theorem's assumptions in order to obtain a better understanding of the capital structure of firms. This work has produced some important insights but has not yet delivered a fully coherent theory of optimal capital structure. For example, at present we do not understand very well the distinguishing features of debt and equity or why these claims, as opposed to the many instruments that could be chosen, are most frequently issued by firms. Given this state of affairs, existing explanations of the debt-equity ratio must be seem as still preliminary, as must efforts to use these explanations to understand global trends such as the large increases in leverage in the United States and United Kingdom during the 1980s.In the first part of this paper, I will argue that one reason progress on understanding capital structure has been limited is that relatively few analysts have adopted an explicit agency-theoretic or managerial discretion perspective. In particular, although the literature, starting with the work of Michael Jensen and William Meckling, frequently refers to conflicts of interest, most of it does not emphasize the conflict of interest between a firm's management and its security holders. But I argue that this particular conflict of interest - that is, the idea that management is self-interested - is critical. In the absence of this conflict, optimal capital structure would look very different from what is observed in the world. In particular, firms would not issue senior or secured debt, whereas in fact a considerable amount of corporate debt has at least one of these features. That is, standard departures from the Modigliani-Miller framework that focus on the role of taxes, asymmetric information, or incomplete markets but ignore managerial self-interest are not sufficient to explain observed capital structure.In the second part of the analysis I will discuss what has been learned from the relatively few studies that have explicitly adopted an agency-theoretic perspective. This body of work, although itself quite preliminary, can explain the use of senior or secured debt or both, as well as shed light on some observe patterns of capital structure, including a number of findings from studies that measure the response of security prices to important events that affect optimal capital structure (quot;event studiesquot;).

Capital Structure and Corporate Financing Decisions

Capital Structure and Corporate Financing Decisions
Author: H. Kent Baker
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2011-03-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118022947

A comprehensive guide to making better capital structure and corporate financing decisions in today's dynamic business environment Given the dramatic changes that have recently occurred in the economy, the topic of capital structure and corporate financing decisions is critically important. The fact is that firms need to constantly revisit their portfolio of debt, equity, and hybrid securities to finance assets, operations, and future growth. Capital Structure and Corporate Financing Decisions provides an in-depth examination of critical capital structure topics, including discussions of basic capital structure components, key theories and practices, and practical application in an increasingly complex corporate world. Throughout, the book emphasizes how a sound capital structure simultaneously minimizes the firm's cost of capital and maximizes the value to shareholders. Offers a strategic focus that allows you to understand how financing decisions relates to a firm's overall corporate policy Consists of contributed chapters from both academics and experienced professionals, offering a variety of perspectives and a rich interplay of ideas Contains information from survey research describing actual financial practices of firms This valuable resource takes a practical approach to capital structure by discussing why various theories make sense and how firms use them to solve problems and create wealth. In the wake of the recent financial crisis, the insights found here are essential to excelling in today's volatile business environment.

Handbook of Empirical Corporate Finance SET

Handbook of Empirical Corporate Finance SET
Author: Bjørn Espen Eckbo
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 1137
Release: 2008-12-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0080559565

This two-volume set summarizes recent research on corporate decision-making. The first volume covers measurement and theoretical subjects as well as sources of capital, including banks, public offerings, and private investors. In the second volume, contributors focus on the ways corporations are structured and the practices through which they can be bought and sold. Thus, its major subjects include dividends, capital structure, financial distress, takeovers, restructurings, and managerial incentives. - Takes stock of the main empirical findings to date across an unprecedented spectrum of corporate finance issues - Discusses everything from econometric methodology, to raising capital and capital structure choice, and to managerial incentives and corporate investment behavior - Contributors are leading empirical researchers that remain active in their respective areas of expertise - Writing style makes the chapters accessible to industry practitioners

World Scientific Reference On Contingent Claims Analysis In Corporate Finance (In 4 Volumes)

World Scientific Reference On Contingent Claims Analysis In Corporate Finance (In 4 Volumes)
Author: Michel Crouhy
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 2039
Release: 2019-01-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9814759341

Black and Scholes (1973) and Merton (1973, 1974) (hereafter referred to as BSM) introduced the contingent claim approach (CCA) to the valuation of corporate debt and equity. The BSM modeling framework is also named the 'structural' approach to risky debt valuation. The CCA considers all stakeholders of the corporation as holding contingent claims on the assets of the corporation. Each claim holder has different priorities, maturities and conditions for payouts. It is based on the principle that all the assets belong to all the liability holders.The BSM modeling framework gives the basic fundamental version of the structural model where default is assumed to occur when the net asset value of the firm at the maturity of the pure-discount debt becomes negative, i.e., market value of the assets of the firm falls below the face value of the firm's liabilities. In a regime of limited liability, the shareholders of the firm have the option to default on the firm's debt. Equity can be viewed as a European call option on the firm's assets with a strike price equal to the face value of the firm's debt. Actually, CCA can be used to value all the components of the firm's liabilities, equity, warrants, debt, contingent convertible debt, guarantees, etc.In the four volumes we present the major academic research on CCA in corporate finance starting from 1973, with seminal papers of Black and Scholes (1973) and Merton (1973, 1974). Volume I covers the foundation of CCA and contributions on equity valuation. Volume II focuses on corporate debt valuation and the capital structure of the firm. Volume III presents empirical evidence on the valuation of debt instruments as well as applications of the CCA to various financial arrangements. The papers in Volume IV show how to apply the CCA to analyze sovereign credit risk, contingent convertible bonds (CoCos), deposit insurance and loan guarantees. Volume 1: Foundations of CCA and Equity ValuationVolume 1 presents the seminal papers of Black and Scholes (1973) and Merton (1973, 1974). This volume also includes papers that specifically price equity as a call option on the corporation. It introduces warrants, convertible bonds and taxation as contingent claims on the corporation. It highlights the strong relationship between the CCA and the Modigliani-Miller (M&M) Theorems, and the relation to the Capital Assets Pricing Model (CAPM). Volume 2: Corporate Debt Valuation with CCAVolume 2 concentrates on corporate bond valuation by introducing various types of bonds with different covenants as well as introducing various conditions that trigger default. While empirical evidence indicates that the simple Merton's model underestimates the credit spreads, additional risk factors like jumps can be used to resolve it. Volume 3: Empirical Testing and Applications of CCAVolume 3 includes papers that look at issues in corporate finance that can be explained with the CCA approach. These issues include the effect of dividend policy on the valuation of debt and equity, the pricing of employee stock options and many other issues of corporate governance. Volume 4: Contingent Claims Approach for Banks and Sovereign DebtVolume 4 focuses on the application of the contingent claim approach to banks and other financial intermediaries. Regulation of the banking industry led to the creation of new financial securities (e.g., CoCos) and new types of stakeholders (e.g., deposit insurers).

Tax Avoidance and Capital Structure

Tax Avoidance and Capital Structure
Author: Alessandro Gabrielli
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 103
Release: 2023-05-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3031309804

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the implications of tax avoidance for a firm’s capital structure, highlighting the key role played by free cash flow and agency conflicts. First, the book provides an outline of the theories and empirical evidence concerning the role of taxes in the Theory of Capital Structure. It reviews the studies investigating the relationship between agency conflicts and capital structure. The book explores the role of free cash flow and agency conflicts in the relationship between tax avoidance and capital structure. In the final section, the results of an empirical investigation conducted on a sample of U.S. public firms are also presented. The empirical research examines whether and how tax avoidance is associated with debt covenant violation across the stages of the corporate life cycle. Specifically, the research uses the concept of the corporate life cycle stage to analyse whether and how the association between tax avoidance and debt covenant violation varies in different agency settings. Consistent with the hypotheses drawn on the Agency Theory, the findings of the empirical research suggest life cycle stages moderate the association between tax avoidance and debt covenant violation. Overall, this book sheds light on the potential implications of tax avoidance activities for a firm’s capital structure. The book will be of interest to both experienced and early-stage scholars interested in the topic. Moreover, the book will also be of interest to policymakers, investors, analysts, lenders, and other market participants.

The Role of Law and Regulation in Sustaining Financial Markets

The Role of Law and Regulation in Sustaining Financial Markets
Author: Niels Philipsen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2014-11-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317750403

This book explores the role of law and regulation in sustaining financial markets in both developed and developing countries, particularly the European Union, United States and China. The central argument of this book is that law matters for the operation of financial markets, which, in turn, significantly influences the performance of firms, industries, and economies. The Role of Law and Regulation in Sustaining Financial Markets is divided into four parts. Part one addresses the connection between law, financial development, and economic growth. Part two deals with the role of financial regulation, which can be used to correct market failures, such as negative externalities, information asymmetries, and monopolies. Part three focuses on the design, functioning, and performance of different financial instruments. Part four examines the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility. This book contributes to the ‘law and finance’ literature by studying certain conventional issues, such as the relationship between finance and economic growth, and the effects of regulatory quality on financial development, from new perspectives and/or with new evidence, data, and cases. It also explores novel topics, such as project finance contracts, insurance and climate change, the shadow banking system, that have been overlooked in current literature. This book is meaningful not only for the EU and the US, which have suffered considerably from the financial crisis of 2008, but also for China, which is struggling to build a sound institutional infrastructure to govern its increasingly complicated financial system. By comparing the regulatory philosophies and practices of the EU, the US and China, this book will help the reader to understand the diverse nature of the global ‘law and finance’ nexus and avoid succumbing to the myth of "one size fits all".

Fundamental Problems and Solutions in Finance

Fundamental Problems and Solutions in Finance
Author: Zhiqiang Zhang
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2023-04-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811982694

This book provides innovative solutions to fundamental problems in finance, such as the valuation of bond and equity, the pricing of debt, equity and total asset, the determination of optimal capital structure, etc., which are unsolved or poor-solved so far. The solutions in this book all have the following features: Based on essential assumptions in line with reality, the final solutions are analytical solutions with closed-form models, the forms and variables of the models are determined by strict and objective logic processes rather than chosen or presumed subjectively, such as the new growth model for stock valuation, the new CAPM accounting for total risk rather than only systematic risk, the real solution to optimal capital structure based on the trade-off between tax shield and bankruptcy cost. In addition, these basic solutions or models are adjusted easily to various application scenarios.

Corporate Capital Structures in the United States

Corporate Capital Structures in the United States
Author: Benjamin M. Friedman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2009-05-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226264238

The research reported in this volume represents the second stage of a wide-ranging National Bureau of Economic Research effort to investigate "The Changing Role of Debt and Equity in Financing U.S. Capital Formation." The first group of studies sponsored under this project, which have been published individually and summarized in a 1982 volume bearing the same title (Friedman 1982), addressed several key issues relevant to corporate sector behavior along with such other aspects of the evolving financial underpinnings of U.S. capital formation as household saving incentives, international capital flows, and government debt management. In the project's second series of studies, presented at the National Bureau of Economic Research conference in January 1983 and published here for the first time along with commentaries from that conference, the central focus is the financial side of capital formation undertaken by the U.S. corporate business sector. At the same time, because corporations' securities must be held, a parallel focus is on the behavior of the markets that price these claims.

Handbook of Empirical Corporate Finance

Handbook of Empirical Corporate Finance
Author: Bjørn Espen Eckbo
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 605
Release: 2011-10-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0080932118

This second volume of a two-part series examines three major topics. First, it devotes five chapters to the classical issue of capital structure choice. Second, it focuses on the value-implications of major corporate investment and restructuring decisions, and then concludes by surveying the role of pay-for-performance type executive compensation contracts on managerial incentives and risk-taking behavior. In collaboration with the first volume, this handbook takes stock of the main empirical findings to date across an unprecedented spectrum of corporate finance issues. The surveys are written by leading empirical researchers that remain active in their respective areas of interest. With few exceptions, the writing style makes the chapters accessible to industry practitioners. For doctoral students and seasoned academics, the surveys offer dense roadmaps into the empirical research landscape and provide suggestions for future work. - Nine original chapters summarize research advances and future topics in the classical issues of capital structure choice, corporate investment behavior, and firm value - Multinational comparisons underline the volume's empirical perspectives - Complements the presentation of econometric issues, banking, and capital acquisition research covered by Volume 1