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Does the cost of capital differ across countries? An agency perspective

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  • René M. Stulz

Abstract

In this keynote speech, I ask the question: Does the cost of capital differ for firms located in different countries? I argue that there are two ways to look at the cost of capital. First, there is the neoclassical perspective, which assumes that there are no agency problems. In integrated markets, the neoclassical cost of capital is the same in every country. Second, there is the agency perspective. Agency costs increase the cost of capital understood as the expected rate of return necessary for an investment to leave the value of the firm unaffected. Adjusting the cost of capital for agency costs, I argue that it differs across countries because of differences in corporate governance. I then provide a comparison of the agency‐adjusted cost of capital between Japan and the US.

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  • René M. Stulz, 1996. "Does the cost of capital differ across countries? An agency perspective," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 2(1), pages 11-22, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:eufman:v:2:y:1996:i:1:p:11-22
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-036X.1996.tb00026.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    3. Lang, Larry H. P. & Stulz, ReneM. & Walkling, Ralph A., 1991. "A test of the free cash flow hypothesis*1: The case of bidder returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 315-335, October.
    4. Stulz, ReneM., 1990. "Managerial discretion and optimal financing policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 3-27, July.
    5. Smith, Clifford Jr., 1986. "Investment banking and the capital acquisition process," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1-2), pages 3-29.
    6. Lee, Moon H. & Zechner, Josef, 1984. "Debt, taxes, and international equilibrium," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 343-355, December.
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    Cited by:

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    2. EnDer Su & Ving-Vunk Mak & Po-Yuk So, 2024. "Exploring Three-style Return Comovements and Contagion Using a Correlation Decomposition GARCH Model," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 63(6), pages 2271-2305, June.
    3. Cooper, Ian A. & Kaplanis, Evi, 2000. "Partially segmented international capital markets and international capital budgeting," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 309-329, June.
    4. Humberto Valencia-Herrera & Francisco López-Herrera, 2018. "Markov Switching International Capital Asset Pricing Model, an Emerging Market Case: Mexico," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 17(1), pages 96-129, April.
    5. Jones, Chris & Temouri, Yama, 2016. "The determinants of tax haven FDI," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 237-250.
    6. repec:vuw:vuwscr:19122 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Rossi, Stefano & Volpin, Paolo F., 2004. "Cross-country determinants of mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 277-304, November.
    8. Udayasankar, Krishna & Das, Shobha & Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar, 2008. "When is Two Really Company? The Effects of Competition and Regulation on Corporate Governance," Working Paper Series 4020, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    9. Hu, Jun & Long, Wenbin & Dai, Ming & (Troy) Yao, Daifei, 2022. "Does international experience of managers bring financing benefits? Evidence from the cost of equity capital," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    10. Udayasankar, Krishna & Das, Shobha & Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar, 2008. "When is Two Really Company? The Effects of Competition and Regulation on Corporate Governance," Working Paper Series 19122, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.

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