IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/joefas/0024.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agency Costs And The Size Discount: Evidence From Acquisitions

Author

Listed:
  • Offenberg, David

    (Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA)

Abstract

Many scholars have found a negative relationship between a firm’s size and its value, as measured by Tobin’s q. This result is called the size discount. There are hypotheses about why the size discount exists, but none have been rigorously empirically tested. This paper argues that the size discount is created by the inability of shareholders to minimize agency costs in larger companies. Statistical tests suggest that the size discount only appears in large firms with managers that impose excessive agency costs upon their shareholders. Empiricists who use Tobin’s q to proxy for growth opportunities may need a different proxy.

Suggested Citation

  • Offenberg, David, 2010. "Agency Costs And The Size Discount: Evidence From Acquisitions," Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science, Universidad ESAN, vol. 15(29), pages 73-93.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:joefas:0024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.esan.edu.pe/publicaciones/2010/11/30/05.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 43-58, January.
    2. Henry G. Manne, 1965. "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(2), pages 110-110.
    3. R. Glenn Hubbard & Darius Palia, 1995. "Benefits of Control, Managerial Ownership, and the Stock Returns of Acquiring Firms," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(4), pages 782-793, Winter.
    4. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    5. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation," Scholarly Articles 29407535, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    6. Yermack, David, 1996. "Higher market valuation of companies with a small board of directors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 185-211, February.
    7. Mitchell, Mark L & Lehn, Kenneth, 1990. "Do Bad Bidders Become Good Targets?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(2), pages 372-398, April.
    8. McConnell, John J. & Servaes, Henri, 1990. "Additional evidence on equity ownership and corporate value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 595-612, October.
    9. Thompson, Steve, 1997. "Takeover activity among financial mutuals: An analysis of target characteristics," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 37-53, January.
    10. Ohlson, Ja, 1980. "Financial Ratios And The Probabilistic Prediction Of Bankruptcy," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 109-131.
    11. Moeller, Sara B. & Schlingemann, Frederik P. & Stulz, Rene M., 2004. "Firm size and the gains from acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 201-228, August.
    12. Mikkelson, Wayne H. & Partch, M. Megan, 1989. "Managers' voting rights and corporate control," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 263-290, December.
    13. Mikkelson, Wayne H. & Ruback, Richard S., 1985. "An empirical analysis of the interfirm equity investment process," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 523-553, December.
    14. Henry G. Manne, 1965. "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(4), pages 351-351.
    15. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation : An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 293-315, January.
    16. Juha-Pekka Kallunki & Elina Pyykkö & Tomi Laamanen, 2009. "Stock Market Valuation, Profitability and R&D Spending of the Firm: The Effect of Technology Mergers and Acquisitions," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(7-8), pages 838-862.
    17. Offenberg, David, 2009. "Firm size and the effectiveness of the market for corporate control," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 66-79, February.
    18. Dilip K. Shome & Sudhir Singh, 1995. "Firm Value and External Blockholdings," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 24(4), Winter.
    19. Loderer, Claudio & Martin, Kenneth, 1997. "Executive stock ownership and performance Tracking faint traces," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 223-255, August.
    20. Palepu, Krishna G., 1986. "Predicting takeover targets : A methodological and empirical analysis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 3-35, March.
    21. Yermack, David, 2006. "Flights of fancy: Corporate jets, CEO perquisites, and inferior shareholder returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 211-242, April.
    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. Chengyong Yu & Rui Cheng & Cheng Zhang & Huijuan Wang, 2021. "Economic Development, Institutional Quality, and the Scale Effect Puzzle of Cross-Border M&As: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis Model," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(9), pages 2514-2541, July.

    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. J. Mulherin, 2005. "Corporations, collective action and corporate governance: One size does not fit all," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 179-204, July.
    2. Bradley W. Benson & Wallace N. Davidson III & Hongxia Wang & Dan L. Worrell, 2011. "Deviations from Expected Stakeholder Management, Firm Value, and Corporate Governance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 39-81, March.
    3. Robert Campbell & Chinmoy Ghosh & Milena Petrova & C. Sirmans, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Performance in the Market for Corporate Control: The Case of REITs," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 451-480, May.
    4. Carline, Nicholas F. & Linn, Scott C. & Yadav, Pradeep K., 2009. "Operating performance changes associated with corporate mergers and the role of corporate governance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1829-1841, October.
    5. Winson Chan & David Emanuel, 2011. "Board governance and acquirers’ returns: A study of Australian acquisitions," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 36(2), pages 174-199, August.
    6. Szilagyi, P.G., 2007. "Corporate governance and the agency costs of debt and outside equity," Other publications TiSEM 9520d40a-224f-43a8-9bf9-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Offenberg, David, 2009. "Firm size and the effectiveness of the market for corporate control," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 66-79, February.
    8. James, Hui & Benson, Bradley W. & Wu, Chen (Ken), 2017. "Does CEO ownership affect payout policy? Evidence from using CEO scaled wealth-performance sensitivity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 328-345.
    9. Singh, Manohar & Davidson III, Wallace N., 2003. "Agency costs, ownership structure and corporate governance mechanisms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 793-816, May.
    10. Eklund, Johan E, 2009. "One Share – One Vote: new evidence from the Nordic countries," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 168, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    11. Benson, Bradley W. & Chen, Yu & James, Hui L. & Park, Jung Chul, 2020. "So far away from me: Firm location and the managerial ownership effect on firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    12. Bauguess, Scott W. & Moeller, Sara B. & Schlingemann, Frederik P. & Zutter, Chad J., 2009. "Ownership structure and target returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 48-65, February.
    13. Daniel Ferreira & Emanuel Ornelas & John L. Turner, 2005. "Ownership Structure and the Market for Corporate Control," IBMEC RJ Economics Discussion Papers 2005-09, Economics Research Group, IBMEC Business School - Rio de Janeiro.
    14. Shkendije Himaj, 2014. "Corporate Governance in Banks and its Impact on Risk and Performance: Review of Literature on the Selected Governance Mechanisms," Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, Central bank of Montenegro, vol. 3(3), pages 53-85.
    15. Loderer, Claudio & Martin, Kenneth, 1997. "Executive stock ownership and performance Tracking faint traces," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 223-255, August.
    16. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    17. Andy Cosh & Paul Guest & Alan Hughes, 2007. "UK Corporate Governance and Takeover Performance," Working Papers wp357, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    18. Yen, Tze-Yu & Andre, Paul, 2007. "Ownership structure and operating performance of acquiring firms: The case of English-origin countries," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 59(5), pages 380-405.
    19. Clifford G. Holderness & Randall S. Kroszner & Dennis P. Sheehan, 1998. "Were the Good Old Days That Good? Changes in Managerial Stock Ownership Since the Great Depression," NBER Working Papers 6550, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Xu, Xijia, 2009. "Aligning debt and equity claimant interests: Evidence from dual claim investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2227-2240, 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:ris:joefas:0024. 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: ESAN Ediciones (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esannpe.html .

    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.