IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v8y2011i3p132-145.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Endogenous leverage and expected stock returns

Author

Listed:
  • Johnson, T.C.
  • Chebonenko, T.
  • Cunha, I.
  • D'Almeida, F.
  • Spencer, X.

Abstract

This note clarifies conditions under which endogenous choice of debt induces a negative relation between leverage or default risk and expected stock returns. In the context of the model of George and Hwang [2009. Journal of Financial Economics 96, 56-79], we correct the contention that variation in bankruptcy costs across firms is sufficient. Variation in asset risk parameters can lead to the desired relation, but may not when also controlling for variation in book-to-market ratios. A simple parameterization of cross-sectional heterogeneity in risk and profitability implies a negative association of expected return with leverage and distress risk and a positive association with book-to-market.

Suggested Citation

  • Johnson, T.C. & Chebonenko, T. & Cunha, I. & D'Almeida, F. & Spencer, X., 2011. "Endogenous leverage and expected stock returns," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 132-145, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:8:y:2011:i:3:p:132-145
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612310000693
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joao F. Gomes & Lukas Schmid, 2010. "Levered Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(2), pages 467-494, April.
    2. Merton, Robert C, 1974. "On the Pricing of Corporate Debt: The Risk Structure of Interest Rates," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 449-470, May.
    3. Lorenzo Garlappi & Tao Shu & Hong Yan, 2008. "Default Risk, Shareholder Advantage, and Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2743-2778, November.
    4. Ilya A. Strebulaev, 2007. "Do Tests of Capital Structure Theory Mean What They Say?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1747-1787, August.
    5. Graham, John R., 1996. "Debt and the marginal tax rate," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 41-73, May.
    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. Chen, Zhiyao & Hackbarth, Dirk & Strebulaev, Ilya A., 2022. "A unified model of distress risk puzzles," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 357-384.
    2. Ferreira Filipe, Sara & Grammatikos, Theoharry & Michala, Dimitra, 2016. "Pricing default risk: The good, the bad, and the anomaly," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 190-213.
    3. Jens Hilscher & Mungo Wilson, 2017. "Credit Ratings and Credit Risk: Is One Measure Enough?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(10), pages 3414-3437, October.
    4. Assaf Eisdorfer & Efdal Ulas Misirli, 2020. "Distressed Stocks in Distressed Times," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(6), pages 2452-2473, June.
    5. Tian, Shaonan & Yu, Yan & Guo, Hui, 2015. "Variable selection and corporate bankruptcy forecasts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 89-100.
    6. Rath, Subhrendu & Durand, Robert B., 2015. "Decomposing the size, value and momentum premia of the Fama–French–Carhart four-factor model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 139-141.
    7. Keloharju, Matti & Linnainmaa, Juhani T. & Nyberg, Peter, 2021. "Long-term discount rates do not vary across firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(3), pages 946-967.
    8. Nils Friewald & Florian Nagler & Christian Wagner, 2022. "Debt Refinancing and Equity Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(4), pages 2287-2329, August.
    9. Michael S. O'Doherty, 2012. "On the Conditional Risk and Performance of Financially Distressed Stocks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(8), pages 1502-1520, August.
    10. Matti Keloharju & Juhani T. Linnainmaa & Peter Nyberg, 2019. "Long-Term Discount Rates Do Not Vary Across Firms," NBER Working Papers 25579, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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. William Gornall & Ilya A. Strebulaev, 2013. "Financing as a Supply Chain: The Capital Structure of Banks and Borrowers," NBER Working Papers 19633, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Armen Hovakimian & Ayla Kayhan & Sheridan Titman, 2012. "Are Corporate Default Probabilities Consistent with the Static Trade-off Theory?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 315-340.
    3. Strebulaev, Ilya A. & Whited, Toni M., 2012. "Dynamic Models and Structural Estimation in Corporate Finance," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 6(1–2), pages 1-163, November.
    4. Antill, Samuel & Grenadier, Steven R., 2019. "Optimal capital structure and bankruptcy choice: Dynamic bargaining versus liquidation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 198-224.
    5. Ferreira Filipe, Sara & Grammatikos, Theoharry & Michala, Dimitra, 2016. "Pricing default risk: The good, the bad, and the anomaly," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 190-213.
    6. Guo, Hui & Jiang, Xiaowen, 2021. "Aggregate Distress Risk and Equity Returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    7. John Y. Campbell & Jens Hilscher & Jan Szilagyi, 2008. "In Search of Distress Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2899-2939, December.
    8. Tao, Qizhi & Chen, Carl & Lu, Rui & Zhang, Ting, 2017. "Underfunding or distress? An analysis of corporate pension underfunding and the cross-section of expected stock returns," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 116-133.
    9. Hui Chen & Jianjun Miao & Neng Wang, 2010. "Entrepreneurial Finance and Nondiversifiable Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(12), pages 4348-4388, December.
    10. Charitou, Andreas & Dionysiou, Dionysia & Lambertides, Neophytos & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2013. "Alternative bankruptcy prediction models using option-pricing theory," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2329-2341.
    11. Erwan Morellec & Boris Nikolov & Norman Schürhoff, 2018. "Agency Conflicts around the World," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(11), pages 4232-4287.
    12. Xu, Jin, 2012. "Profitability and capital structure: Evidence from import penetration," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 427-446.
    13. Favara, Giovanni & Morellec, Erwan & Schroth, Enrique & Valta, Philip, 2017. "Debt enforcement, investment, and risk taking across countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(1), pages 22-41.
    14. Sim, Jaehun & Kim, Chae-Soo, 2019. "The value of renewable energy research and development investments with default consideration," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 530-539.
    15. Zhiguo He & Wei Xiong, 2012. "Rollover Risk and Credit Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 391-430, April.
    16. Leary, Mark T. & Roberts, Michael R., 2010. "The pecking order, debt capacity, and information asymmetry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 332-355, March.
    17. Chamizo, Álvaro & Fonollosa, Alexandre & Novales, Alfonso, 2019. "Forward-looking asset correlations in the estimation of economic capital," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 264-288.
    18. Hui Chen & Yu Xu & Jun Yang, 2012. "Systematic Risk, Debt Maturity and the Term Structure of Credit Spreads," Staff Working Papers 12-27, Bank of Canada.
    19. Pawlina, Grzegorz, 2010. "Underinvestment, capital structure and strategic debt restructuring," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 679-702, December.
    20. Koresh Galil & Neta Gilat, 2019. "Predicting Default More Accurately: To Proxy or Not to Proxy for Default?," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 731-758, December.

    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:eee:finlet:v:8:y:2011:i:3:p:132-145. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.