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How economic policy uncertainty affects the cost of raising equity capital: Evidence from seasoned equity offerings

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  • Chan, Yue-Cheong
  • Saffar, Walid
  • Wei, K.C. John

Abstract

Economic policy uncertainty (EPU) increases the cost of raising equity capital, especially when the economy is weak. A one standard deviation increase in the EPU index developed by Baker, Bloom, and Davis (2016) is associated with a 43 basis point increase in the price discount of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) during the 2000−2014 period. The cross-sectional analysis shows that the EPU effect on SEO discounts is stronger for firms with greater dependence on government spending, less informative stock price, or a smaller EPU beta. Moreover, there are fewer SEO activities in periods when there is a high degree of policy uncertainty.

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  • Chan, Yue-Cheong & Saffar, Walid & Wei, K.C. John, 2021. "How economic policy uncertainty affects the cost of raising equity capital: Evidence from seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finsta:v:53:y:2021:i:c:s1572308920301443
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfs.2020.100841
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    11. Naimoli, Antonio, 2022. "The information content of sentiment indices for forecasting Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall in equity markets," MPRA Paper 112588, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Shabir, Mohsin & Jiang, Ping & Bakhsh, Satar & Zhao, Zhongxiu, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty and bank stability: Threshold effect of institutional quality and competition," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    13. Naimoli, Antonio, 2023. "The information content of sentiment indices in forecasting Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall: a Complete Realized Exponential GARCH-X approach," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    14. Colak, Gonul & Fu, Mengchuan & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2022. "On modeling IPO failure risk," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    15. Puwanenthiren, Premkanth & Azam, Md Saiful & Jahangir Ali, Muhammad & Nadarajah, Sivathaasan, 2024. "Does annual report readability influence the design of SEOs?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 970-984.
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    22. Lukas Timbate & Dongil Kim & Dereje Asrat & Hwang Sungjun, 2024. "Firm-level political uncertainty, corporate lobbying and risk-taking," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    23. Dang, Man & Puwanenthiren, Premkanth & Thai, Hong An & Mazur, Mieszko & Jones, Edward & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2021. "Policy uncertainty and seasoned equity offerings methods," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic policy uncertainty; Seasoned equity offerings; SEO discounts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation

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