IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v69y2016icp1-19.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

National culture and the cost of debt

Author

Listed:
  • Chui, Andy C.W.
  • Kwok, Chuck C.Y.
  • (Stephen) Zhou, Gaoguang

Abstract

This study investigates how Schwartz’s cultural dimensions of embeddedness and mastery affect the corporate cost of debt through bankruptcy risk and sensitivity to agency activity channels. Using data from 33 countries, we find a strong and robust negative relation between embeddedness and the cost of debt. The estimated relation between mastery and the corporate cost of debt is negative and significant in most of the tests. Further analyses reveal that the development of financial intermediation and the enforcement of insider trading law moderate the relation between culture and the cost of debt. Confirming our hypotheses, we document that embeddedness is negatively related to bankruptcy risk and sensitivity to agency activity. We find that mastery is positively related to bankruptcy risk across countries as well, but this relation is weaker. We also show that mastery is positively related to sensitivity to agency activity among countries with highly leveraged firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Chui, Andy C.W. & Kwok, Chuck C.Y. & (Stephen) Zhou, Gaoguang, 2016. "National culture and the cost of debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:69:y:2016:i:c:p:1-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2016.04.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426616300243
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2016.04.001?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. Zheng, Xiaolan & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Kwok, Chuck C.Y., 2012. "National culture and corporate debt maturity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 468-488.
    2. Bliss, Mark A. & Gul, Ferdinand A., 2012. "Political connection and cost of debt: Some Malaysian evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1520-1527.
    3. Djankov, Simeon & McLiesh, Caralee & Shleifer, Andrei, 2007. "Private credit in 129 countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 299-329, May.
    4. Xiaolan Zheng & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Chuck C Y Kwok, 2013. "Collectivism and corruption in bank lending," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(4), pages 363-390, May.
    5. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    6. Jin, Li & Myers, Stewart C., 2006. "R2 around the world: New theory and new tests," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 257-292, February.
    7. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1999. "The Quality of Government," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 222-279, April.
    8. Anderson, Ronald C. & Mansi, Sattar A. & Reeb, David M., 2003. "Founding family ownership and the agency cost of debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 263-285, May.
    9. Stulz, Rene M. & Williamson, Rohan, 2003. "Culture, openness, and finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 313-349, December.
    10. Asli Demirgüč-Kunt & Luc Laeven & Ross Levine, 2004. "Regulations, market structure, institutions, and the cost of financial intermediation," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 593-626.
    11. Licht, Amir N. & Goldschmidt, Chanan & Schwartz, Shalom H., 2007. "Culture rules: The foundations of the rule of law and other norms of governance," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 659-688, December.
    12. Prowse, Stephen D., 1990. "Institutional investment patterns and corporate financial behavior in the United States and Japan," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 43-66, September.
    13. 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.
    14. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    15. Oliver E. Williamson, 2000. "The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 595-613, September.
    16. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W., 2009. "Markets and institutions in financial intermediation: National characteristics as determinants," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1770-1780, October.
    17. Levine, Ross & Renelt, David, 1992. "A Sensitivity Analysis of Cross-Country Growth Regressions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 942-963, September.
    18. Zou, Hong & Adams, Mike B., 2008. "Debt Capacity, Cost of Debt, and Corporate Insurance," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 433-466, June.
    19. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    20. Allen, Franklin & Gu, Xian & Kowalewski, Oskar, 2012. "Financial crisis, structure and reform," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2960-2973.
    21. Stijn Claessens & Leora F. Klapper, 2005. "Bankruptcy around the World: Explanations of Its Relative Use," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 7(1), pages 253-283.
    22. Giannetti, Mariassunta, 2003. "Do Better Institutions Mitigate Agency Problems? Evidence from Corporate Finance Choices," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 185-212, March.
    23. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2006. "What Works in Securities Laws?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 1-32, February.
    24. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2009. "Cultural Biases in Economic Exchange?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 124(3), pages 1095-1131.
    25. Jappelli, Tullio & Pagano, Marco & Bianco, Magda, 2005. "Courts and Banks: Effects of Judicial Enforcement on Credit Markets," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(2), pages 223-244, April.
    26. Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2006. "International Differences in the Cost of Equity Capital: Do Legal Institutions and Securities Regulation Matter?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 485-531, June.
    27. Philippe Aghion & Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc & Andrei Shleifer, 2010. "Regulation and Distrust," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(3), pages 1015-1049.
    28. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 23-48, Spring.
    29. Opler, Tim C & Titman, Sheridan, 1994. "Financial Distress and Corporate Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(3), pages 1015-1040, July.
    30. Attig, Najah & Guedhami, Omrane & Mishra, Dev, 2008. "Multiple large shareholders, control contests, and implied cost of equity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 721-737, December.
    31. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4km7l02j139aj8hl7kcccmqk9s is not listed on IDEAS
    32. Hamdi Ben‐Nasr & Narjess Boubakri & Jean‐Claude Cosset, 2012. "The Political Determinants of the Cost of Equity: Evidence from Newly Privatized Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 605-646, June.
    33. Laeven, Luc & Majnoni, Giovanni, 2005. "Does judicial efficiency lower the cost of credit?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1791-1812, July.
    34. Mariassunta Giannetti & Yishay Yafeh, 2012. "Do Cultural Differences Between Contracting Parties Matter? Evidence from Syndicated Bank Loans," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 365-383, February.
    35. Kee‐Hong Bae & Vidhan K. Goyal, 2009. "Creditor Rights, Enforcement, and Bank Loans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 823-860, April.
    36. Liang Shao & Chuck CY Kwok & Omrane Guedhami, 2010. "National culture and dividend policy," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(8), pages 1391-1414, October.
    37. Utpal Bhattacharya & Hazem Daouk, 2002. "The World Price of Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 75-108, February.
    38. Pittman, Jeffrey A. & Fortin, Steve, 2004. "Auditor choice and the cost of debt capital for newly public firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 113-136, February.
    39. 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.
    40. Qi, Yaxuan & Roth, Lukas & Wald, John K., 2010. "Political rights and the cost of debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 202-226, February.
    41. James S. Ang & Rebel A. Cole & James Wuh Lin, 2000. "Agency Costs and Ownership Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 81-106, February.
    42. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    43. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    44. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W., 2011. "International variations in expected equity premia: Role of financial architecture and governance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 3090-3100, November.
    45. Ohlson, Ja, 1980. "Financial Ratios And The Probabilistic Prediction Of Bankruptcy," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 109-131.
    46. Boubakri, Narjess & Guedhami, Omrane & Mishra, Dev & Saffar, Walid, 2012. "Political connections and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 541-559.
    47. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Ross Levine, 2010. "Financial Institutions and Markets across Countries and over Time: The Updated Financial Development and Structure Database," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 24(1), pages 77-92, January.
    48. Kai Li & Dale Griffin & Heng Yue & Longkai Zhao, 2011. "National culture and capital structure decisions: Evidence from foreign joint ventures in China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(4), pages 477-503, May.
    49. Li, Kai & Griffin, Dale & Yue, Heng & Zhao, Longkai, 2013. "How does culture influence corporate risk-taking?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 1-22.
    50. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    51. Denis, David J & Denis, Diane K & Sarin, Atulya, 1997. "Agency Problems, Equity Ownership, and Corporate Diversification," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 135-160, March.
    52. Verwijmeren, Patrick & Derwall, Jeroen, 2010. "Employee well-being, firm leverage, and bankruptcy risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 956-964, May.
    53. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    54. Sattar A. Mansi & David M. Reeb, 2002. "Corporate Diversification: What Gets Discounted?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2167-2183, October.
    55. Siegel, Jordan I. & Licht, Amir N. & Schwartz, Shalom H., 2011. "Egalitarianism and international investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 621-642.
    56. Eun, Cheol S. & Wang, Lingling & Xiao, Steven C., 2015. "Culture and R2," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 283-303.
    57. Andy C W Chui & Alison E Lloyd & Chuck C Y Kwok, 2002. "The Determination of Capital Structure: Is National Culture a Missing Piece to the Puzzle?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(1), pages 99-127, March.
    58. Liang Shao & Chuck C Y Kwok & Ran Zhang, 2013. "National culture and corporate investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(7), pages 745-763, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Pascal Gantenbein & Axel Kind & Christophe Volonté, 2019. "Individualism and Venture Capital: A Cross-Country Study," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 59(5), pages 741-777, October.
    2. El Ghoul, Sadok & Zheng, Xiaolan, 2016. "Trade credit provision and national culture," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 475-501.
    3. Kostas Pappas & Alice Liang Xu, 2023. "Do foreign lenders' national cultures affect loan pricing?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 2006-2036, April.
    4. Lievenbrück, Martin & Schmid, Thomas, 2014. "Why do firms (not) hedge? — Novel evidence on cultural influence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 92-106.
    5. Cline, Brandon N. & Williamson, Claudia R., 2017. "Individualism, democracy, and contract enforcement," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 284-306.
    6. Chui, Andy C.W. & Li, Xiao & Saffar, Walid, 2021. "National culture and the choice between bank debt and public debt," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Bitar, Mohammad & Tarazi, Amine, 2022. "Individualism, formal institutional environments, and bank capital decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Claessens, Stijn & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin, 2013. "Corporate governance in emerging markets: A survey," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 1-33.
    9. Chen, Hanwen & Huang, Henry He & Lobo, Gerald J. & Wang, Chong, 2016. "Religiosity and the cost of debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 70-85.
    10. Paul Brockman & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Ying Zheng, 0. "Does social trust affect international contracting? Evidence from foreign bond covenants," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 0, pages 1-34.
    11. Brandon N. Cline & Claudia R. Williamson, 2020. "Trust, regulation, and contracting institutions," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(4), pages 859-895, September.
    12. Álvarez-Botas, Celia & González, Víctor M., 2021. "Does trust matter for the cost of bank loans?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    13. Ron Christian Antonczyk & Wolfgang Breuer & Astrid Juliane Salzmann, 2014. "Long-Term Orientation and Relationship Lending: A Cross-Cultural Study on the Effect of Time Preferences on the Choice of Corporate Debt," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 381-415, June.
    14. Pevzner, Mikhail & Xie, Fei & Xin, Xiangang, 2015. "When firms talk, do investors listen? The role of trust in stock market reactions to corporate earnings announcements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 190-223.
    15. Zhe An & Zhian Chen & Donghui Li & Lu Xing, 2018. "Individualism and stock price crash risk," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(9), pages 1208-1236, December.
    16. Boubakri, Narjess & Mirzaei, Ali & Samet, Anis, 2017. "National culture and bank performance: Evidence from the recent financial crisis," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 36-56.
    17. Paul Brockman & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Ying Zheng, 2022. "Does social trust affect international contracting? Evidence from foreign bond covenants," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 1011-1044, August.
    18. Ashraf, Badar Nadeem & Zheng, Changjun & Arshad, Sidra, 2016. "Effects of national culture on bank risk-taking behavior," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 309-326.
    19. Cao, Zhongyu & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Kwok, Chuck, 2020. "National culture and the choice of exchange rate regime," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    20. Dale Griffin & Omrane Guedhami & Chuck C Y Kwok & Kai Li & Liang Shao, 2017. "National culture: The missing country-level determinant of corporate governance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(6), pages 740-762, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    National culture; Cost of capital; Bankruptcy; Agency cost; Embeddedness; Mastery;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • 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:jbfina:v:69:y:2016:i:c:p:1-19. 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/jbf .

    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.