题目：Cost Structure and Capital Structure
时间：2013年10月29日（周二）15:00-16：30
地点：嘉庚二号楼501教室
报告人：Rui Shen，Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
主持人：Tony Ruan, assistant professor of finance, IFAS
论文摘要：
The stakeholder theory of capital structure proposed by Titman (1984) argues that nonfinancial stakeholders, such as customers and employees, may care about a firm’s financial health. The firm will thus take into account these stakeholders’ preferences when making capital structure decisions. In particular, firms selling specialized products will choose a lower leverage ratio. We propose a cost structure measure to capture the uniqueness of products. We document that this single factor can explain about 16 to 23 percent of the cross-sectional variation in capital structure. A one standard deviation increase in the cost structure variable relates to an 8 to 10 percent decrease in the debt ratio. The association is stronger among firms with a higher default probability. The results are robust to using the instrumental variable (IV) method where the IV is the earnings per job in the state where the firm’s headquarters is located. Lastly, we isolate the channels through which stakeholders affect capital structure. We find evidence for a “brand value” effect channel where consumers using specialized products to signal status care about the products’ brand value, which is attached to the image of the company. We conclude that, consistent with the stakeholder theory, cost structure has a causal impact on a firm’s leverage choices and is one of the most important determinants of capital structure in the cross section.
报告人简介：
Dr. Shen Rui got Ph.D. in Accounting from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and M.S. and B.A. in Accounting from Tsinghua University. His research interests include capital market, corporate finance, voluntary disclosure, analyst forecast, disagreement, and social intangibles. He’s published papers in The Accounting Review and Strategic Management Journal.
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