Adjustment Speed of Debt Maturity: Evidence From Financial Crises in East Asia

Polat

2021

IJOEM

PurposeThe authors investigate the impact of governance on the leverage of East Asian firms in the financial crisis context, in order to understand the puzzle whether debt acts as a substitute for governance or an outcome of the governance mechanism.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use 86,030 firm-years and the country-level governance data from eight East Asian countries over the period 1996–2017. The authors employ the fixed effects (FE) model, in the main analysis and the weighted least squares model, as a robustness check in order to compare the two competing hypotheses of agency theory, substitute and outcome models.FindingsThe authors’ results show that debt acts as a substitute for governance before the GFC, but during and after the GFC the picture changes. Namely, debt acts as an outcome of the governance mechanism during the GFC and its aftermath. Since during financial downturns both agency costs increase, and information asymmetry widens, firms in poor-governed countries may be reluctant to increase their leverage in order not to face financial distress and additional restrictions. Thus, the results imply that the use of debt as a tool to mitigate agency conflicts and a substitute for governance strongly depends on the environment that the firms operate and the general macroeconomic conditions, such as facing a financial crisis or not.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides an interesting case of the firms' capacity to raise money during a crisis and that governance plays an important role in borrowing activities of firms. This will undoubtedly help motivating owners and policymakers for improving governance. The authors’ findings may be useful for policymakers to develop policies considering the adverse effects caused by exogenous shocks. This is crucial because the severity of GFC as a shock seems to change the macro and institutional environment that firms operate. While the authors properly address the research hypotheses using country governance data, future research may employ corporate governance data to attain firm-level results by testing two competing hypotheses.Originality/valueThere are several important areas where this study makes original contributions. First, while Tsoy and Heshmati (2019) focus on the dynamics of capital structure for only Korean firms, the authors extend the sample including eight East Asian countries considering the impact of country governance on capital structure policy. Specifically, this study is the first in using the robust country governance data, which differs by country and year, in the crisis context. Next, the authors investigate both the AFC and GFC to compare whether these two crises have different effects on capital structure policy of East Asian firms. Finally, the authors aim to understand whether leverage is used as a substitute for governance or an outcome of governance mechanism considering recessions.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is leverage a substitute or outcome for governance? Evidence from financial crises

Polat

2021

IJOEM

The Global Financial Crisis and Adjustment Speed of Cash Holdings

Anemon Muş Alparslan Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi

Polat

Muğaloğlu

2021

Self Cite

Dış finansmana erişimin sınırlı olduğu zamanlarda nakit tutma stratejik bir öneme sahip olmaktadır. Likit varlıklar, özellikle dış şoklarla birlikte firmaların varlıklarını devam ettirebilmeleri için çok önemli hale gelmektedir. Öyle ki, nakit varlıkların talep fonksiyonu, doğal bir deney imkânı sunan 2008-2009 Küresel Finansal Krizine (KFK) bağlı olarak değişebilmektedir. Optimum nakit tutma teorisine dayanan bu çalışma, KFK'den önce ve sonra Borsa İstanbul (BİST)'da işlem gören finansal olmayan firmaların nakit varlıklarının ayarlama hızını 2003-2018 zaman dilimi için incelemektedir. Herhangi bir içsellik problemini azaltmak için genelleştirilmiş momentler yöntemi (GMM) kullanılmıştır. Bulgular, BİST'teki firmaların KFK sırasında kredi arzının azalması ve dış fonlama maliyetlerinin de artmasından dolayı daha fazla nakit stoku kullanmaları neticesinde, kriz ve sonrasında nakit varlıklarının ayarlama hızının arttığını göstermektedir. Genel bir sonuç olarak, firma sahipleri ve yöneticileri, krizler gibi yüksek belirsizlik ortamlarında kurumsal finansmanı etkileyen faktörleri de göz önünde bulundurarak ve nakit tutmanın maliyetini hesaba katarak, firmaları için doğru nakit tutma politikası belirlemelidirler.

How Do Geopolitical Risk and Global Trade Shape Corporate Cash Policy?

The Transformation of Global Trade in a New World

GÜRBÜZ

Kayadibi

2022

This chapter investigates the influence of geopolitical risk (GPR) and global trade on cash holdings with the existence of the global financial crisis 2008-2009 (GFC) for 11,960 non-financial firms in 18 markets from 2002 to 2017. Findings show that firms in countries with higher GPR and lower trade volume have higher cash balances confirming the predictions of the precautionary motive of cash. The implications of the findings are manifold. Managers should shape their cash policies considering the uncertainties, GPR, and trade level. Investors should consider countries' financial crises and GPR in specifying where and which firms to invest in. Policymakers can reshape the regulations and policies related to holding cash rather than paying dividends not to hurt firms in times of turbulence like the pandemic. Researchers and practitioners should count the macro-specific factors and market turmoil and their influence on cash holding in risky countries. The implications are particularly relevant to the post-pandemic era when exogenous shocks and uncertainties are further expected.