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Full-Text Articles in Business

Leverage Change, Debt Overhang, And Stock Prices, Jie Cai, Zhe Zhang Oct 2009

Leverage Change, Debt Overhang, And Stock Prices, Jie Cai, Zhe Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We document a significant and negative effect of the change in a firm’s leverage ratio on its stock prices. We find that the negative effect is stronger for firms with a greater likelihood of debt overhang. Moreover, firms with an increase in leverage ratio tend to have less future investment. These findings are consistent with Myers' (1977) debt overhang theory that an increase in leverage may lead to future underinvestment, thus reducing a firm's value.


Illiquidity, Stock Return And Corporate Capital Structure: Evidence From Seasoned Equity Offering, Zhao Yu Jan 2009

Illiquidity, Stock Return And Corporate Capital Structure: Evidence From Seasoned Equity Offering, Zhao Yu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The post-issue underperformance of seasoned equity offering (SEO) is generally explained by asymmetric information and deteriorating operating performance. We complement these traditional explanations with a new parameter, the liquidity, which results from the change of capital structure due to equity offering. The new issuing of equity lowers the debt to asset ratio, lowers the information asymmetry, thus increasing stock liquidity, which is in accordance with the hypotheses presented by Kyle(1985)'s model; Evidence that stocks become more liquid after SEO, thus lower the expected return, resulting to underperformance, combined with the high stock illiquidity before SEO, which coincides the high return, …


Corporate Tax, Capital Structure, And The Accessibility Of Bank Loans: Evidence From China, Liansheng Wu, Heng Yue Jan 2009

Corporate Tax, Capital Structure, And The Accessibility Of Bank Loans: Evidence From China, Liansheng Wu, Heng Yue

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this paper, we investigate whether listed firms in China adjust their capital structure in response to an increase in the corporate taxrate. Although theories of capital structure suggest that corporate tax is an important determinant of capital structure, how exogenouschanges of the tax rate affect firms’ leverage decisions has not been fully explored. We examine a unique circumstance in which the Chinesegovernment increased the corporate tax rate of firms that had previously received local government tax rebates. The evidence indicatesthat these firms increased their leverage when the corporate tax rate increased. Further investigation suggests that the adjustment ofleverage was …