IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v49y2009i3p531-553.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managerial incentives and corporate leverage: evidence from the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Chrisostomos Florackis
  • Aydin Ozkan

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of managerial incentives and corporate governance on capital structure using a large sample of UK firms during the period 1999–2004. The analysis revolves around the view that managerial incentives are important in determining a firm's leverage. However, we argue that the exact impact of these incentives on leverage is likely to be determined by firm‐specific governance characteristics. To conduct our investigation, we construct a simple corporate governance measure using detailed ownership and governance information. We present evidence of a significant non‐monotonic relationship between executive ownership and leverage. There is also strong evidence suggesting that corporate governance practices have a significant impact on leverage. More importantly, the results reveal that the nature of the relation between executive ownership and leverage depends on the firm's corporate governance structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Chrisostomos Florackis & Aydin Ozkan, 2009. "Managerial incentives and corporate leverage: evidence from the United Kingdom," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 49(3), pages 531-553, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:49:y:2009:i:3:p:531-553
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-629X.2009.00296.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2009.00296.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2009.00296.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Klock, Mark S. & Mansi, Sattar A. & Maxwell, William F., 2005. "Does Corporate Governance Matter to Bondholders?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 693-719, December.
    2. Ivo Welch, 2004. "Capital Structure and Stock Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(1), pages 106-131, February.
    3. repec:bla:jfinan:v:43:y:1988:i:2:p:271-81 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Alberto De Miguel & Julio Pindado & Chabela De La Torre, 2005. "How do Entrenchment and Expropriation Phenomena Affect Control Mechanisms?," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 505-516, July.
    5. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    6. Berger, Philip G & Ofek, Eli & Yermack, David L, 1997. "Managerial Entrenchment and Capital Structure Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1411-1438, September.
    7. Michael Faulkender & Rong Wang, 2006. "Corporate Financial Policy and the Value of Cash," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1957-1990, August.
    8. Berkovitch, Elazar & Israel, Ronen, 1996. "The Design of Internal Control and Capital Structure," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(1), pages 209-240.
    9. Ozkan, Aydin & Ozkan, Neslihan, 2004. "Corporate cash holdings: An empirical investigation of UK companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 2103-2134, September.
    10. Gan, Jie, 2007. "Collateral, debt capacity, and corporate investment: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 709-734, September.
    11. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    12. Franks, Julian & Mayer, Colin & Renneboog, Luc, 2001. "Who Disciplines Management in Poorly Performing Companies?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 10(3-4), pages 209-248, July.
    13. Callahan, William T. & Millar, James A. & Schulman, Craig, 2003. "An analysis of the effect of management participation in director selection on the long-term performance of the firm," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 169-181, March.
    14. Paul Gompers & Joy Ishii & Andrew Metrick, 2003. "Corporate Governance and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 107-156.
    15. Faccio, Mara & Lang, Larry H. P., 2002. "The ultimate ownership of Western European corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 365-395, September.
    16. Stephen R. Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to micro data methods and practice," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 1(2), pages 141-162, August.
    17. Stulz, ReneM., 1990. "Managerial discretion and optimal financing policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 3-27, July.
    18. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:4:p:1777-1804 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Anup Agrawal & Charles R. Knoeber, "undated". "Firm Performance and Mechanisms to Control Agency Problems between Managers and Shareholders (Revision of 29-94)," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 08-96, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    20. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    21. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    22. Yermack, David, 1996. "Higher market valuation of companies with a small board of directors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 185-211, February.
    23. Byrd, John W. & Hickman, Kent A., 1992. "Do outside directors monitor managers? *1: Evidence from tender offer bids," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 195-221, October.
    24. Kim, Wi Saeng & Sorensen, Eric H., 1986. "Evidence on the Impact of the Agency Costs of Debt on Corporate Debt Policy," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(2), pages 131-144, June.
    25. Frank, Murray Z. & Goyal, Vidhan K., 2004. "The effect of market conditions on capital structure adjustment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 47-55, March.
    26. McConnell, John J. & Servaes, Henri, 1990. "Additional evidence on equity ownership and corporate value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 595-612, October.
    27. Aydin Ozkan, 2001. "Determinants of Capital Structure and Adjustment to Long Run Target: Evidence From UK Company Panel Data," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1-2), pages 175-198.
    28. Michael L. Lemmon & Michael R. Roberts & Jaime F. Zender, 2008. "Back to the Beginning: Persistence and the Cross‐Section of Corporate Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1575-1608, August.
    29. Aydin Ozkan, 2001. "Determinants of Capital Structure and Adjustment to Long Run Target: Evidence From UK Company Panel Data," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1‐2), pages 175-198, January.
    30. Charlie Weir & David Laing & Phillip J. McKnight, 2002. "Internal and External Governance Mechanisms: Their Impact on the Performance of Large UK Public Companies," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5&6), pages 579-611.
    31. Michael J. Barclay & Erwan Morellec, 2006. "On the Debt Capacity of Growth Options," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(1), pages 37-60, January.
    32. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    33. Timothy J. Brailsford & Barry R. Oliver & Sandra L. H. Pua, 2002. "On the relation between ownership structure and capital structure," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 42(1), pages 1-26, March.
    34. Anup Agrawal & Charles R. Knoeber, "undated". "Firm Performance and Mechanisms to Control Agency Problems between Managers and Shareholders (Revision of 29-94)," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 8-96, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    35. Stephen Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to microdata methods and practice," CeMMAP working papers CWP09/02, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    36. Agrawal, Anup & Knoeber, Charles R., 1996. "Firm Performance and Mechanisms to Control Agency Problems between Managers and Shareholders," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(3), pages 377-397, September.
    37. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Canarella, Giorgio & Miller, Stephen M., 2022. "Firm size, corporate debt, R&D activity, and agency costs: Exploring dynamic and non-linear effects," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    2. Michael Puleo & Michael McDonald & Steven Kozlowski, 2021. "Share‐pledging and the cost of debt," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 1047-1079, March.
    3. Gyimah, Daniel & Gyapong, Ernest, 2021. "Managerial entrenchment and payout policy: A catering effect," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    4. Sun, Ji & Ding, Li & Guo, Jie Michael & Li, Yichen, 2016. "Ownership, capital structure and financing decision: Evidence from the UK," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 448-463.
    5. Husam Aldamen & Keith Duncan & Simone Kelly & Ray McNamara & Stephan Nagel, 2012. "Audit committee characteristics and firm performance during the global financial crisis," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(4), pages 971-1000, December.
    6. Madhur Bhatia & Rachita Gulati, 2023. "Does ‘inter-bank’ horizontal pay disparity influence performance? Evidence from emerging economy," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(4), pages 327-343, December.
    7. Hayam Wahba, 2014. "Capital structure, managerial ownership and firm performance: evidence from Egypt," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(4), pages 1041-1061, November.
    8. Chao, Chi Chur & Hu, May & Munir, Qaiser & Li, Tongxia, 2017. "The impact of CEO power on corporate capital structure: New evidence from dynamic panel threshold analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 107-120.
    9. Mahmoud Agha, 2013. "Leverage, executive incentives and corporate governance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(1), pages 1-30, March.
    10. Li, Wei-Xuan & Chen, Clara Chia-Sheng & French, Joseph J., 2012. "The relationship between liquidity, corporate governance, and firm valuation: Evidence from Russia," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 465-477.
    11. Yushu Zhu, 2017. "Call it good, bad or no news? The valuation effect of debt issues," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(4), pages 1203-1229, December.
    12. Tarchouna, Ameni & Jarraya, Bilel & Bouri, Abdelfettah, 2017. "How to explain non-performing loans by many corporate governance variables simultaneously? A corporate governance index is built to US commercial banks," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 645-657.
    13. Li, Tongxia & Munir, Qaiser & Abd Karim, Mohd Rahimie, 2017. "Nonlinear relationship between CEO power and capital structure: Evidence from China's listed SMEs," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-21.
    14. Julio Pindado & Ignacio Requejo & Chabela la Torre, 2015. "Does Family Control Shape Corporate Capital Structure? An Empirical Analysis of Eurozone Firms," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(7-8), pages 965-1006, September.
    15. Thanida Chitnomrath & Robert Evans & Theo Christopher, 2011. "Corporate governance and post‐bankruptcy reorganisation performance," Asian Review of Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 19(1), pages 50-67, May.
    16. Gupta, Parul & Chauhan, Sumedha, 2023. "Dynamics of corporate governance mechanisms - family firms’ performance relationship- a meta-analytic review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    17. Brahma, Sanjukta & Zhang, Jing & Boateng, Agyenim & Nwafor, Chioma, 2023. "Political connection and M&A performance: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 372-389.
    18. Florackis, Chris & Kanas, Angelos & Kostakis, Alexandros, 2015. "Dividend policy, managerial ownership and debt financing: A non-parametric perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(3), pages 783-795.
    19. Kokoreva, Maria (Кокорева, Мария) & Ulugova, Aziza (Улугова, Азиза), 2015. "Corporate governance and finance company policy: a review of research [Корпоративное Управление И Политика Финансирования Компаний: Обзор Исследований]," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 6, pages 160-170.
    20. Emmanuel Adu‐Ameyaw & Albert Danso & Linda Hickson, 2022. "Growth opportunity and investment policy: The role of managerial incentives," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3634-3646, December.
    21. Madhur Bhatia & Rachita Gulati, 2020. "Assessing the Quality of Bank Boards: Evidence from the Indian Banking Industry," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 14(4), pages 409-431, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chrisostomos Florackis & Aydin Ozkan, 2009. "The Impact of Managerial Entrenchment on Agency Costs: An Empirical Investigation Using UK Panel Data," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 15(3), pages 497-528, June.
    2. Mahmoud Agha, 2013. "Leverage, executive incentives and corporate governance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(1), pages 1-30, March.
    3. Canarella, Giorgio & Miller, Stephen M., 2022. "Firm size, corporate debt, R&D activity, and agency costs: Exploring dynamic and non-linear effects," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    4. Mário Santos & António Moreira & Elisabete Vieira, 2014. "Ownership concentration, contestability, family firms, and capital structure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(4), pages 1063-1107, November.
    5. James, Hui & Benson, Bradley W. & Wu, Chen (Ken), 2017. "Does CEO ownership affect payout policy? Evidence from using CEO scaled wealth-performance sensitivity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 328-345.
    6. Aziz Jaafar & Lynn Hodgkinson & Mao-Feng Kao, 2019. "Ownership Structure, Board of Directors and Firm Performance: Evidence from Taiwan," Working Papers 19011, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    7. Chi, Jianxin Daniel & Scott Lee, D., 2010. "The conditional nature of the value of corporate governance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 350-361, February.
    8. Dutordoir, Marie & Strong, Norman & Ziegan, Marius C., 2014. "Does corporate governance influence convertible bond issuance?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 80-100.
    9. Roberto Mura, 2007. "Firm Performance: Do Non‐Executive Directors Have Minds of their Own? Evidence from UK Panel Data," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 36(3), pages 81-112, September.
    10. Maria-Teresa Marchica, "undated". "Debt Maturity and the Characteristics of Ownership Structure: An Empirical Investigation of UK Firms," Discussion Papers 05/29, Department of Economics, University of York.
    11. Antonczyk, Ron Christian & Salzmann, Astrid Juliane, 2014. "Overconfidence and optimism: The effect of national culture on capital structure," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 132-151.
    12. Mohamed, Hisham Hanifa & Masih, Mansur & Bacha, Obiyathulla I., 2015. "Why do issuers issue Sukuk or conventional bond? Evidence from Malaysian listed firms using partial adjustment models," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 233-252.
    13. Jimmy A. Saravia, 2014. "Why has the literature on corporate governance and firm performance yielded mixed results?," Documentos de Trabajo de Valor Público 10914, Universidad EAFIT.
    14. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2012. "Market timing, taxes and capital structure: evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints t3mvs, Center for Open Science.
    15. Hani El-Chaarani, 2015. "The Impact of Financial and Legal Structures on the Performance of European Listed Firms," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 9(2), pages 39-52.
    16. Tarek Ghazouani, 2013. "The Capital Structure through the Trade-Off Theory: Evidence from Tunisian Firm," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 3(3), pages 625-636.
    17. Ruoran Xu & Joseph T. L. Ooi, 2018. "Good Growth, Bad Growth: How Effective are REITs’ Corporate Watchdogs?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 64-86, July.
    18. Kusnadi, Yuanto, 2011. "Do corporate governance mechanisms matter for cash holdings and firm value?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 554-570, November.
    19. Amitava Roy, 2014. "Corporate Governance and Firm Performance: An Exploratory Analysis of Indian Listed Companies," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 3(1-2), pages 93-120, June.
    20. Im, Hyun Joong & Kang, Ya & Shon, Janghoon, 2020. "How does uncertainty influence target capital structure?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:49:y:2009:i:3:p:531-553. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.