IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/euract/v10y2001i2p291-314.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Valuation implications of capital structure: a contextual approach

Author

Listed:
  • Begona Giner
  • Carmelo Reverte

Abstract

In this paper, the Ohlson (1995) valuation model is used to analyse the informative value of firm capital structure, decomposing the book value of equity in its two main components (i.e., total assets and liabilities) in order to test whether investors price them in a different way. We adopt a contextual approach and analyse the value relevance of debt taking into account the signalling and 'optimal' financial structure theories as well as the relationship between the cost of debt and return on investment. The sample used comprises all the non-financial Spanish firms listed in the Madrid Stock Exchange during the period 1991-7. Our results seem to support the 'optimal' capital structure theory since departures of the debt-to-equity ratio from its 'optimal' (or target) level are negatively perceived by the market. The debt valuation parameter is higher (lower) for those firms with a cost of debt above (below) return on investment. In addition, and consistent with the signalling theory, debt seems to be a positive signal for firms facing good prospects. This effect is strongly significant for those cases in which return on investment exceeds the cost of debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Begona Giner & Carmelo Reverte, 2001. "Valuation implications of capital structure: a contextual approach," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 291-314.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:10:y:2001:i:2:p:291-314
    DOI: 10.1080/09638180126637
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09638180126637
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09638180126637?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. William P. Rees, 1997. "The Impact of Dividends, Debt and Investment on Valuation Models," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(7‐8), pages 1111-1140, September.
    2. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    4. Joos, P & Lang, M, 1994. "The Effects Of Accounting Diversity - Evidence From The European-Union," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32, pages 141-168.
    5. Eckbo, B. Espen, 1986. "Valuation effects of corporate debt offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1-2), pages 119-151.
    6. 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.
    7. Begoña Giner & William Rees, 1999. "A Valuation Based Analysis of the Spanish Accounting Reforms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 3(1), pages 31-48, March.
    8. Bernard, Vl, 1987. "Cross-Sectional Dependence And Problems In Inference In Market-Based Accounting Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 1-48.
    9. Stephen A. Ross, 1977. "The Determination of Financial Structure: The Incentive-Signalling Approach," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 8(1), pages 23-40, Spring.
    10. Harris, Ts & Lang, M & Moller, Hp, 1994. "The Value Relevance Of German Accounting Measures - An Empirical-Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 187-209.
    11. William P. Rees, 1997. "The Impact of Dividends, Debt and Investment on Valuation Models," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(7&8), pages 1111-1140.
    12. Collins, Daniel W. & Maydew, Edward L. & Weiss, Ira S., 1997. "Changes in the value-relevance of earnings and book values over the past forty years," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 39-67, December.
    13. Schipper, Katherine & Smith, Abbie, 1986. "A comparison of equity carve-outs and seasoned equity offerings : Share price effects and corporate restructuring," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1-2), pages 153-186.
    14. Kothari, S. P. & Zimmerman, Jerold L., 1995. "Price and return models," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 155-192, September.
    15. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. "Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-1051, September.
    16. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    17. Stephen H. Penman, 1998. "Combining Earnings and Book Value in Equity Valuation," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 291-324, September.
    18. Masulis, Ronald W, 1983. "The Impact of Capital Structure Change on Firm Value: Some Estimates," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 38(1), pages 107-126, March.
    19. Berger, Philip G. & Ofek, Eli & Swary, Itzhak, 1996. "Investor valuation of the abandonment option," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 257-287, October.
    20. Begona Giner & Carmelo Reverte, 1999. "The value relevance of earnings disaggregation provided in the Spanish profit and loss account," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(4), pages 609-629.
    21. Penman, SH, 1996. "The articulation of price-earnings ratios and market-to-book ratios and the evaluation of growth," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 235-259.
    22. Barth, Mary E. & Beaver, William H. & Landsman, Wayne R., 1998. "Relative valuation roles of equity book value and net income as a function of financial health," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 1-34, February.
    23. Basu, Sudipta, 1997. "The conservatism principle and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 3-37, December.
    24. Myers, Stewart C., 1984. "Capital structure puzzle," Working papers 1548-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    25. Myers, Stewart C, 1984. "The Capital Structure Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 575-592, July.
    26. Mary E. Barth & Sanjay Kallapur, 1996. "The Effects of Cross†Sectional Scale Differences on Regression Results in Empirical Accounting Research," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(2), pages 527-567, September.
    27. Stewart C. Myers, 1984. "Capital Structure Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 1393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. José Curto & José Pinto & Ana Morais & Isabel Lourenço, 2011. "The heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance estimator in accounting," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 427-449, November.

    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. Patrik Bauer & Vít Bubák, 2003. "Informative value of firm capital structure," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2003(3), pages 233-248.
    2. Nwaeze, Emeka T., 2005. "Replacement versus adaptation investments and equity value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 523-549, June.
    3. Juan Manuel García Lara & Beatriz García Osma & Araceli Mora, 2005. "The Effect of Earnings Management on the Asymmetric Timeliness of Earnings," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3‐4), pages 691-726, April.
    4. Paul-Olivier KLEIN, 2017. "Do Shareholders Value Bond Offerings? A Meta-Analysis," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2017-04, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    5. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.
    6. Glenn Boyle & Kelly Eckhold, 1997. "Capital structure choice and financial market liberalization: evidence from New Zealand," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 427-437.
    7. Joliet, Robert & Muller, Aline, 2013. "Capital structure effects of international expansion," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 375-393.
    8. Paulo, Alves, 2018. "Abnormal retained earnings around the world," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 63-74.
    9. Hyun Mo Sung, 1993. "The Effects Of Overpayment And Form Of Financing On Bidder Returns In Mergers And Tender Offers," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 16(4), pages 351-365, December.
    10. Markus Hang & Jerome Geyer‐Klingeberg & Andreas W. Rathgeber & Stefan Stöckl, 2021. "Rather complements than substitutes: Firm value effects of capital structure and financial hedging decisions," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 4895-4917, October.
    11. Ghadeer Khartabiel & Ahmad Abu-Alkheil & Tunku Salha Tunku Ahmad & Walayet Khan, 2020. "Shari’ah-compliant Sukuk versus conventional bond announcements: is there a wealth effect?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 1059-1073, April.
    12. Akbar, Saeed & Rehman, Shafiq ur & Liu, Jia & Shah, Syed Zulfiqar Ali, 2017. "Credit supply constraints and financial policies of listed companies during the 2007–2009 financial crisis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 559-571.
    13. repec:dgr:rugsom:01e55 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Anton Miglo, 2020. "Zero-Debt Policy under Asymmetric Information, Flexibility and Free Cash Flow Considerations," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-25, November.
    15. Schauten, M.B.J. & Spronk, J., 2006. "Optimal Capital Structure: Reflections on Economic and Other Values," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2006-074-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    16. Gao, Ning, 2011. "The adverse selection effect of corporate cash reserve: Evidence from acquisitions solely financed by stock," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 789-808, September.
    17. Benjamin Kleidt & Eckhard Scharmer & Dirk Schiereck, 2009. "Desinvestitionen von Aktienpaketen — Eine Analyse von Exchangeable Bonds," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 61(7), pages 738-780, November.
    18. Nowak, Eric, 1998. "Finance, investment, and firm value in Germany and the US: A comparative analysis," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 1998,49, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    19. Patrick Artus & Philippe Ducos & Francois Lecointe, 1992. "Rachats d'entreprise avec endettement (LBO et MBO) : motivations micro-économiques, effets sur l'efficacité des entreprises et risques macro-économiques," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 102(1), pages 89-104.
    20. John R. M. Hand & Wayne R. Landsman, 2005. "The Pricing of Dividends in Equity Valuation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3‐4), pages 435-469, April.
    21. Chen, Linda H. & Jiang, George J., 2001. "The determinants of Dutch capital structure choice," Research Report 01E55, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).

    More about this item

    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:taf:euract:v:10:y:2001:i:2:p:291-314. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REAR20 .

    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.