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Culture, agency costs, and governance: International evidence on capital structure

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  • Fauver, Larry
  • McDonald, Michael B.

Abstract

We examine social characteristics (individualism and risk aversion) and their interaction with firm governance and capital structure across the G20 countries from 1995 to 2009 using roughly 13,000 firms. We show that higher levels of individualism are associated with increased firm use of debt and lower cost of capital, whereas higher risk aversion has the opposite effects. Better firm-level governance substantially reduces these cultural effects, as does larger firm size, and less research-intensity at the firm. The results show that capital structure in emerging markets is considerably less affected by national culture relative to developed countries. To address endogeneity concerns, we show our results hold after using a propensity score matching procedure.

Suggested Citation

  • Fauver, Larry & McDonald, Michael B., 2015. "Culture, agency costs, and governance: International evidence on capital structure," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-23.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:34:y:2015:i:c:p:1-23
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2015.05.001
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    4. Baolei Qi & Liuchuang Li & Qing Zhou & Jinghui Sun, 2017. "Does internal control over financial reporting really alleviate agency conflicts?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(4), pages 1101-1125, December.
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    6. Maurizio Rocca & Neha Neha & Tiziana Rocca, 2020. "Female management, overconfidence and debt maturity: European evidence," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(3), pages 713-747, September.
    7. Charl de Villiers & Jing Jia & Zhongtian Li, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility: A review of empirical research using Thomson Reuters Asset4 data," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4523-4568, December.
    8. Alves, Paulo, 2018. "Cash holdings around the world: Financial crisis, culture and shareholder rights," MPRA Paper 89861, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2018.
    9. Robert W Faff & Stephen Gray & Kelvin Jui Keng Tan, 2016. "A contemporary view of corporate finance theory, empirical evidence and practice," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 41(4), pages 662-686, November.
    10. Fauver, Larry & Hung, Mingyi & Li, Xi & Taboada, Alvaro G., 2017. "Board reforms and firm value: Worldwide evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 120-142.
    11. Haifeng Hu & Minjing Qi, 2022. "New Evidence on National Culture and Corporate Financing: Does Institutional Quality Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-24, October.
    12. Soon Suk Yoon & Hyo Jin Kim & Hongbok Lee & Doug Waggle, 2017. "Financing preferences: evidence from the Korean market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(44), pages 4501-4520, September.
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    14. Houda Qasim Aleqedat & Sara Zakaria AL-Rawash, 2020. "International Journal of Business and Social Research (IJBSR)7The Impacts of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions and Ownership Structure on Dividend Policy of Financial Sectors in Jordan," Journal of Business, LAR Center Press, vol. 5(1), pages 07-25, January.
    15. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Chen, Xiaoyan & Ling, Xin & Smith, Tom & Zhu, Yushu, 2016. "Emerging trends in Asia-Pacific finance research: A review of recent influential publications and a research agenda," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 66-76.
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    Keywords

    Capital structure; Culture; Agency costs; Governance; International;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • F39 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Other

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