Debt, Diversification, and Valuation
Abstract
The separate associations between financial leverage and valuation and between diversification and valuation have been widely researched. The joint function of leverage, diversification, and valuation, however, has received much less attention. Previous research shows that compared to specialized firms, diversified firms tend to have higher free cash flows and fewer high net present value investment opportunities. Consequently, the agency costs associated with potential overinvestment are greater for diversified firms. The literature also proposes that financial leverage should reduce agency costs. Consequently, we expect that the values of diversified firms increase with leverage. Our tests provide strong support for the hypothesis that the values of diversified firms increase with leverage. This tendency is not observed for specialized firms. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting.
Volume (Year): 25 (2005)
Issue (Month): 3 (November)
Pages: 277-291
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://springerlink.metapress.com/link.asp?id=102990
Related research
Keywords: debt; leverage; diversification; valuation;References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Toni M. Whited, 2001. "Is It Inefficient Investment that Causes the Diversification Discount?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1667-1691, October.
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Schoubben, Frederiek & Van Hulle, Cynthia, 2006. "The impact of a stock listing on the determinants of firm performance," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/121061, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
- Adel Bino & Elisabeta Pana, 2011. "Firm value and investment policy around stock for stock mergers," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 207-221, August.
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