IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v43y2017icp15-36.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stock market listing and corporate policy: Evidence from reforms to Japanese corporate law

Author

Listed:
  • Orihara, Masanori

Abstract

We study how the tradeoff between stock liquidity and stock market scrutiny affects various aspects of corporate policy, using data that cover public and private companies in Japan. We exploit legal reforms as the source of exogenous variation in stock market listing. The sample used in our main analysis consists of firms whose ownership is concentrated. This sample construction helps us mitigates the agency problems that come from the separation of ownership and control. We find that listing reduces debt financing, especially dependence on long-term debt. In addition, we determine that listing improves profitability. These findings support the importance of stock liquidity. However, we also provide evidence that is not consistent with theories on stock liquidity, by reporting that stock market listing does not reduce cash holdings. We discover that it increases capital expenditures and decreases R&D expenses. The two contrasting effects demonstrate the relevance of short-termism pressure from the stock market. We also observe that listing reduces tax aggressiveness, in line with theories that emphasize the role of stock market scrutiny. Our findings suggest that the liquidity-scrutiny tradeoff of stock market listing has heterogeneous effects on firm policy, depending on its nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Orihara, Masanori, 2017. "Stock market listing and corporate policy: Evidence from reforms to Japanese corporate law," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 15-36.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:43:y:2017:i:c:p:15-36
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2017.01.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X1730029X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.pacfin.2017.01.002?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
    ---><---

    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. Desai, Mihir A. & Dharmapala, Dhammika, 2006. "Corporate tax avoidance and high-powered incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 145-179, January.
    2. Gao, Huasheng & Harford, Jarrad & Li, Kai, 2013. "Determinants of corporate cash policy: Insights from private firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 623-639.
    3. Vivian W. Fang & Xuan Tian & Sheri Tice, 2014. "Does Stock Liquidity Enhance or Impede Firm Innovation?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2085-2125, October.
    4. Paul Hribar & Daniel W. Collins, 2002. "Errors in Estimating Accruals: Implications for Empirical Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 105-134, March.
    5. Sreedhar T. Bharath & Amy K. Dittmar, 2010. "Why Do Firms Use Private Equity to Opt Out of Public Markets?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1771-1818.
    6. Crocker, Keith J. & Slemrod, Joel, 2005. "Corporate tax evasion with agency costs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1593-1610, September.
    7. Alex Edmans, 2009. "Blockholder Trading, Market Efficiency, and Managerial Myopia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(6), pages 2481-2513, December.
    8. 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.
    9. Levine, Ross, 1991. "Stock Markets, Growth, and Tax Policy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1445-1465, September.
    10. Takeo Hoshi & Anil Kashyap & David Scharfstein, 1991. "Corporate Structure, Liquidity, and Investment: Evidence from Japanese Industrial Groups," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(1), pages 33-60.
    11. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Stulz, Rene M., 2006. "Dividend policy and the earned/contributed capital mix: a test of the life-cycle theory," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 227-254, August.
    12. Carola Schenone, 2010. "Lending Relationships and Information Rents: Do Banks Exploit Their Information Advantages?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 1149-1199, March.
    13. Avanidhar Subrahmanyam & Sheridan Titman, 2001. "Feedback from Stock Prices to Cash Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2389-2413, December.
    14. Jeremy C. Stein, 1989. "Efficient Capital Markets, Inefficient Firms: A Model of Myopic Corporate Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(4), pages 655-669.
    15. John R. Becker‐Blease & Donna L. Paul, 2006. "Stock Liquidity and Investment Opportunities: Evidence from Index Additions," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 35(3), pages 35-51, September.
    16. Vojislav Maksimovic & Gordon Phillips & Liu Yang, 2013. "Private and Public Merger Waves," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 2177-2217, October.
    17. Brav, Alon & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Michaely, Roni, 2005. "Payout policy in the 21st century," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 483-527, September.
    18. 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.
    19. Hoshi, Takeo & Kashyap, Anil K, 2010. "Will the U.S. bank recapitalization succeed? Eight lessons from Japan," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 398-417, September.
    20. Fukuda, Shin-ichi & Kasuya, Munehisa & Akashi, Kentaro, 2009. "Impaired bank health and default risk," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 145-162, April.
    21. Anat R. Admati & Paul Pfleiderer, 2009. "The "Wall Street Walk" and Shareholder Activism: Exit as a Form of Voice," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(7), pages 2445-2485, July.
    22. Shai Bernstein, 2015. "Does Going Public Affect Innovation?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1365-1403, August.
    23. Anthony Saunders & Sascha Steffen, 2011. "The Costs of Being Private: Evidence from the Loan Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(12), pages 4091-4122.
    24. Hanlon, Michelle & Slemrod, Joel, 2009. "What does tax aggressiveness signal? Evidence from stock price reactions to news about tax shelter involvement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 126-141, February.
    25. Omer Brav, 2009. "Access to Capital, Capital Structure, and the Funding of the Firm," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 263-308, February.
    26. John R. Becker-Blease & Donna L. Paul, 2006. "Stock Liquidity and Investment Opportunities: Evidence from Index Additions," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 35(3), Autumn.
    27. John Asker & Joan Farre-Mensa & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2015. "Corporate Investment and Stock Market Listing: A Puzzle?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(2), pages 342-390.
    28. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Blouin, Jennifer L. & Jagolinzer, Alan D. & Larcker, David F., 2015. "Corporate Governance, Incentives, and Tax Avoidance," Research Papers 2134, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    29. Kang, Jun-Koo & Stulz, Rene M, 2000. "Do Banking Shocks Affect Borrowing Firm Performance? An Analysis of the Japanese Experience," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(1), pages 1-23, January.
    30. Amihud, Yakov & Lev, Baruch & Travlos, Nickolaos G, 1990. "Corporate Control and the Choice of Investment Financing: The Case of Corporate Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 603-616, June.
    31. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:1:p:27-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    32. Gustavo Grullon & Roni Michaely & Bhaskaran Swaminathan, 2002. "Are Dividend Changes a Sign of Firm Maturity?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(3), pages 387-424, July.
    33. Bakke, Tor-Erik & Jens, Candace E. & Whited, Toni M., 2012. "The real effects of delisting: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 183-193.
    34. Roni Michaely & Michael R. Roberts, 2012. "Corporate Dividend Policies: Lessons from Private Firms," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(3), pages 711-746.
    35. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Blouin, Jennifer L. & Jagolinzer, Alan D. & Larcker, David F., 2015. "Corporate governance, incentives, and tax avoidance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 1-17.
    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. French, Joseph J. & Fujitani, Ryosuke & Yasuda, Yukihiro, 2021. "Does stock market listing impact investment in Japan?," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    2. Alhassan, Abdulrahman & Naka, Atsuyuki, 2020. "Corporate future investments and stock liquidity: Evidence from emerging markets," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 69-83.
    3. ORIHARA Masanori & SUZUKI Takafumi, 2021. "Windfalls? Costs and Benefits of Investment Tax Incentives due to Financial Constraints," Discussion papers 21087, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Kovermann, Jost & Velte, Patrick, 2019. "The impact of corporate governance on corporate tax avoidance—A literature review," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Kim, Hyonok & Yasuda, Yukihiro & 安田, 行宏, 2020. "Earnings Management and Stock Market Listing," Working Paper Series G-1-24, Hitotsubashi University Center for Financial Research.
    6. Takashi Yoshida, 2021. "The benefit of being public: Evidence from survival analysis of corporate financing," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 44(4), pages 839-874, December.

    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. Masanori Orihara, 2016. "Stock market listing and corporate policy: Evidence from reforms to Japanese corporate law," Discussion papers ron283, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan.
    2. Acharya, Viral & Xu, Zhaoxia, 2017. "Financial dependence and innovation: The case of public versus private firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 223-243.
    3. Abdulla, Yomna & Dang, Viet Anh & Khurshed, Arif, 2017. "Stock market listing and the use of trade credit: Evidence from public and private firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 391-410.
    4. Takashi Yoshida, 2021. "The benefit of being public: Evidence from survival analysis of corporate financing," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 44(4), pages 839-874, December.
    5. Abdulla, Yomna & Dang, Viet Anh & Khurshed, Arif, 2020. "Suppliers' listing status and trade credit provision," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    6. Masanori Orihara, 2015. "Stock market listing and corporate tax aggressiveness: Evidence from legal reforms in squeeze out in Japan," Discussion papers ron270, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan.
    7. Golubov, Andrey & Xiong, Nan, 2020. "Post-acquisition performance of private acquirers," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    8. Mortal, Sandra & Nanda, Vikram & Reisel, Natalia, 2020. "Why do private firms hold less cash than public firms? International evidence on cash holdings and borrowing costs," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    9. Zhang, Ping & Wang, Yiru & Gao, Jieying, 2023. "Going public and innovation: Evidence from the ChiNext stock market," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 586-613.
    10. Yizhong Wang & Linying Lv & Shanqiao Xia, 2022. "Initial public offering, corporate innovation and total factor productivity: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(5), pages 4695-4726, December.
    11. Meghana Ayyagari & Asli Demirguc-Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2021. "Are large firms born or made? Evidence from developing countries," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 191-219, June.
    12. French, Joseph J. & Fujitani, Ryosuke & Yasuda, Yukihiro, 2021. "Does stock market listing impact investment in Japan?," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    13. Guan Ping Zhu & He Fa Gui & Tao Peng & Chong Hui Jiang, 2023. "Corporate tax avoidance and corporate financialization: The moderating effect of managerial myopia," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 459-472, January.
    14. Gu, Lifeng & Wang, Yixin & Yao, Wentao & Zhang, Yilin, 2018. "Stock liquidity and corporate diversification: Evidence from China’s split share structure reform," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 57-80.
    15. Chatterjee, Sris & Hasan, Iftekhar & John, Kose & Yan, An, 2021. "Stock liquidity, empire building, and valuation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. Jiang, Fuxiu & Ma, Yunbiao & Shi, Beibei, 2017. "Stock liquidity and dividend payouts," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 295-314.
    17. Yomna Abdulla & Viet Anh Dang & Arif Khurshed, 2016. "Debt maturity and initial public offerings," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 1129-1165, November.
    18. Yangyang Chen & Rui Ge & Henock Louis & Leon Zolotoy, 2019. "Stock liquidity and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 309-340, March.
    19. He, Eric & Jacob, Martin & Vashishtha, Rahul & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2022. "Does differential taxation of short-term relative to long-term capital gains affect long-term investment?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    20. Vojislav Maksimovic & Gordon Phillips & Liu Yang, 2023. "Do IPO Firms Become Myopic?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(3), pages 765-807.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stock market listing; Stock liquidity; Stock market scrutiny; Natural experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

    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:eee:pacfin:v:43:y:2017:i:c:p:15-36. 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/pacfin .

    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.