IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jecfin/v25y2001i1p80-99.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate borrowing and growth option value: The limited liability effect

Author

Listed:
  • Jyh-Bang Jou

Abstract

A firm issues bonds before undertaking a risky continuous investment project that is costly to later either expand or contract. The firm’s existing debt load causes it to install a smaller capacity because equity has limited liability. This lowers debt value, but such a cost should be borne by equityholders because debtholders will rationally anticipate equityholders’ future behavior. The firm’s choice of debt levels balances this agency cost against the tax shield benefit. As the firm incurs higher costs to later expand capacity, its growth option value becomes lower. The simulation results of this article are in line with Myers’ conjecture (1977), which states that a firm’s debt capacity is inversely related to its growth option value. Copyright Springer 2001

Suggested Citation

  • Jyh-Bang Jou, 2001. "Corporate borrowing and growth option value: The limited liability effect," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 25(1), pages 80-99, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jecfin:v:25:y:2001:i:1:p:80-99
    DOI: 10.1007/BF02759688
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF02759688
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF02759688?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. Bradley, Michael & Jarrell, Gregg A & Kim, E Han, 1984. "On the Existence of an Optimal Capital Structure: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 857-878, July.
    2. Tobin, James, 1969. "A General Equilibrium Approach to Monetary Theory," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 1(1), pages 15-29, February.
    3. Gaver, Jennifer J. & Gaver, Kenneth M., 1993. "Additional evidence on the association between the investment opportunity set and corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-3), pages 125-160, April.
    4. Jou, Jyh-Bang, 2001. "Entry, financing, and bankruptcy decisions: The limited liability effect," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 69-88.
    5. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    6. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    7. Haugen, Robert A & Senbet, Lemma W, 1978. "The Insignificance of Bankruptcy Costs to the Theory of Optimal Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(2), pages 383-393, May.
    8. Warner, Jerold B, 1977. "Bankruptcy Costs: Some Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 337-347, May.
    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. Sudipto Sarkar, 2020. "The relationship between operating leverage and financial leverage," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 805-826, April.

    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. Alderson, Michael J. & Betker, Brian L., 1995. "Liquidation costs and capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 45-69, September.
    2. Sanjiva Prasad & Christopher J. Green & Victor Murinde, 2005. "Company Financial Structure: A Survey and Implications for Developing Economies," Chapters, in: Christopher J. Green & Colin Kirkpatrick & Victor Murinde (ed.), Finance and Development, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. T. Pham & D. Chow, 1989. "Some Estimates of Direct and Indirect Bankruptcy Costs in Australia: September 1978–May 1983," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 14(1), pages 75-95, June.
    4. Sanjiva Prasad & Christopher J. Green & Victor Murinde, 2001. "Company Financing, Captial Structure, and Ownership: A Survey, and Implications for Developing Economies," SUERF Studies, SUERF - The European Money and Finance Forum, number 12 edited by Morten Balling, May.
    5. Khaled Ba-Abbad & Nurwati Ashikkin Ahmad-Zaluki, 2012. "The Determinants of Capital Structure of Qatari Listed Companies," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 2(2), pages 93-108, April.
    6. Nestor Bruno & Marcelo Pedro Dabos & Fernando Andrés Grozs, 2021. "Determinantes de la estructura de capital: un survey con énfasis en Latinoamérica," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4444, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    7. Ogden, Joseph P. & Wu, Shanhong, 2013. "Reassessing the effect of growth options on leverage," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 182-195.
    8. Hege, Ulrich, 2003. "Workouts, court-supervised reorganization and the choice between private and public debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 233-269, March.
    9. Cieply Sylvie, 2001. "The Radical Change of French Firms’ Financial Characteristics. Macroeconomic Consequences and Lessons for Political Economics / Die französische Finanzrevolution. Die Folgen für die Finanzstruktur der," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 221(5-6), pages 556-576, October.
    10. Poitevin, Michel, 1989. "Information et marchés financiers : une revue de littérature," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 65(4), pages 555-589, décembre.
    11. Twine, Edgar E. & Kiiza, Barnabas & Bashaasha, Bernard, 2015. "The Flexible Accelerator Model of Investment: An Application to Ugandan Tea- Processing Firms," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, March.
    12. Francisco Sogorb- Mira, 2002. "How Sme Uniqueness Affects Capital Structure: Evidence From A 1994-1998 Spanish Data Panel," Working Papers. Serie EC 2002-18, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    13. Zélia Serrasqueiro & Ana Caetano, 2015. "Trade-Off Theory versus Pecking Order Theory: capital structure decisions in a peripheral region of Portugal," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 445-466, April.
    14. Wald, John, 1999. "Capital structure with dividend restrictions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 193-208, June.
    15. 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.
    16. Clemente-Almendros, José A. & Sogorb-Mira, Francisco, 2018. "Costs of debt, tax benefits and a new measure of non-debt tax shields: examining debt conservatism in Spanish listed firms," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 162-175.
    17. R. Miniaci & M. Parisi & P. Panteghini, 2014. "Debt shifting in Europe," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(3), pages 397-435, June.
    18. Francesca Barion & Raffaele Miniaci & Paolo M Panteghini & Maria Laura Parisi, 2010. "Profit shifting by debt financing in Europe," Working Papers 1007, University of Brescia, Department of Economics.
    19. Roger H. Gordon & Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason, 1990. "Effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 on Corporate Financial Policy and Organizational Form," NBER Working Papers 3222, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Tarun Sabarwal, 2005. "The non-neutrality of debt in investment timing: a new NPV rule," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 433-445, October.

    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:spr:jecfin:v:25:y:2001:i:1:p:80-99. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.