IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/ijfiec/v25y2020i4p547-564.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Supply‐side factors, CEO overconfidence, and zero‐leverage policy

Author

Listed:
  • Tahera Ebrahimi
  • Jairaj Gupta
  • Aydin Ozkan

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of credit rating downgrades, equity mispricing, and CEO overconfidence on zero‐leverage policy, using data for listed U.S. firms during the period 1980–2012. The results show that (a) the likelihood of zero leverage increases significantly following a downgrade in credit rating; (b) zero leverage is the outcome of the past attempts by firms to issue more overvalued equity capital; and (c) firms with overconfident CEOs are more likely to choose zero leverage. The results clearly suggest that the conditions prevailing in both credit and equity markets exert significant influence on zero‐leverage policy. The analysis also advocates the inclusion of managerial biases in conjunction with the market‐wide conditions in the analysis of zero‐leverage policy. Overall, the findings reveal that zero‐leverage firms find that the benefits of issuing overvalued equity outweigh the benefits associated with debt financing. These results are robust to a battery of checks.

Suggested Citation

  • Tahera Ebrahimi & Jairaj Gupta & Aydin Ozkan, 2020. "Supply‐side factors, CEO overconfidence, and zero‐leverage policy," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(4), pages 547-564, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:ijfiec:v:25:y:2020:i:4:p:547-564
    DOI: 10.1002/ijfe.1765
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.1765
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/ijfe.1765?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lemmon, Michael L. & Zender, Jaime F., 2010. "Debt Capacity and Tests of Capital Structure Theories," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(5), pages 1161-1187, October.
    2. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate, 2005. "CEO Overconfidence and Corporate Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2661-2700, December.
    3. Hall, Brian J. & Murphy, Kevin J., 2002. "Stock options for undiversified executives," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-42, February.
    4. Joaquim Ferrão & José Dias Curto & Ana Paula Gama, 2016. "Low-leverage policy dynamics: an empirical analysis," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(4), pages 463-483, November.
    5. Aydoğan Alti, 2006. "How Persistent Is the Impact of Market Timing on Capital Structure?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1681-1710, August.
    6. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    7. Michael Faulkender & Mitchell A. Petersen, 2006. "Does the Source of Capital Affect Capital Structure?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(1), pages 45-79.
    8. Berggren, Bjorn & Olofsson, Christer & Silver, Lars, 2000. "Control Aversion and the Search for External Financing in Swedish SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 233-242.
    9. Lewellen, Katharina, 2006. "Financing decisions when managers are risk averse," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 551-589, December.
    10. Ho, Po-Hsin & Huang, Chia-Wei & Lin, Chih-Yung & Yen, Ju-Fang, 2016. "CEO overconfidence and financial crisis: Evidence from bank lending and leverage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 194-209.
    11. Malcolm Baker, 2009. "Capital Market-Driven Corporate Finance," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 181-205, November.
    12. Ming Dong & David Hirshleifer & Siew Hong Teoh, 2012. "Overvalued Equity and Financing Decisions," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(12), pages 3645-3683.
    13. Amir Sufi, 2009. "The Real Effects of Debt Certification: Evidence from the Introduction of Bank Loan Ratings," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 1659-1691, April.
    14. Bolton, Patrick & Chen, Hui & Wang, Neng, 2013. "Market timing, investment, and risk management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 40-62.
    15. Gary Chamberlain, 1980. "Analysis of Covariance with Qualitative Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 225-238.
    16. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Puri, Manju, 2013. "Managerial attitudes and corporate actions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 103-121.
    17. Serfling, Matthew A., 2014. "CEO age and the riskiness of corporate policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 251-273.
    18. repec:oup:rfinst:v:25:y::i:12:p:3645-3683 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Morin, Roger A & Fernandez Suarez, Antonio, 1983. "Risk Aversion Revisited," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 38(4), pages 1201-1216, September.
    20. Warr, Richard S. & Elliott, William B. & Koëter-Kant, Johanna & Öztekin, Özde, 2012. "Equity Mispricing and Leverage Adjustment Costs," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(3), pages 589-616, June.
    21. J B Heaton, 2002. "Managerial Optimism and Corporate Finance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 31(2), Summer.
    22. 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.
    23. Elliott, William B. & Koeter-Kant, Johanna & Warr, Richard S., 2007. "A valuation-based test of market timing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 112-128, March.
    24. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R., 2001. "The theory and practice of corporate finance: evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2-3), pages 187-243, May.
    25. Björn Berggren & Christer Olofsson & Lars Silver, 2000. "Control Aversion and The Search for External Financing in Swedish SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 233-242, November.
    26. Huang, Ronghong & Tan, Kelvin Jui Keng & Faff, Robert W., 2016. "CEO overconfidence and corporate debt maturity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 93-110.
    27. Darren J. Kisgen, 2006. "Credit Ratings and Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1035-1072, June.
    28. Hackbarth, Dirk, 2008. "Managerial Traits and Capital Structure Decisions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 843-881, December.
    29. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    30. John R. Graham, 2000. "How Big Are the Tax Benefits of Debt?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(5), pages 1901-1941, October.
    31. Kisgen, Darren J., 2009. "Do Firms Target Credit Ratings or Leverage Levels?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(6), pages 1323-1344, December.
    32. Bonaimé, Alice Adams & Öztekin, Özde & Warr, Richard S., 2014. "Capital structure, equity mispricing, and stock repurchases," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 182-200.
    33. Campbell, T. Colin & Gallmeyer, Michael & Johnson, Shane A. & Rutherford, Jessica & Stanley, Brooke W., 2011. "CEO optimism and forced turnover," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 695-712, September.
    34. Andriosopoulos, Dimitris & Andriosopoulos, Kostas & Hoque, Hafiz, 2013. "Information disclosure, CEO overconfidence, and share buyback completion rates," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5486-5499.
    35. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate & Jon Yan, 2011. "Overconfidence and Early‐Life Experiences: The Effect of Managerial Traits on Corporate Financial Policies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1687-1733, October.
    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. Uz Zaman, Qamar & Ehsan, Sadaf & Hassan, Mohammad Kabir & Javed, Muzhar & Ul Hassan, Syed Iftikhar, 2022. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Zero Leverage," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 56(1), pages 33-46.
    2. Theophilus Lartey & Albert Danso, 2022. "CEO overconfidence and debt covenant violations," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 162-199, March.
    3. Tiago Loncan & Styliani Panetsidou & Angelos Synapis, 2024. "Leverage, investment and institutional environments: Evidence from emerging markets," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 849-866, January.
    4. Chipeta, Chimwemwe & Aftab, Nadeem & Machokoto, Michael, 2021. "The implications of financial conservatism for African firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).

    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. Danso, Albert & Lartey, Theophilus & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Adomako, Samuel & Lu, Qinye & Uddin, Moshfique, 2019. "Market sentiment and firm investment decision-making," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    2. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2012. "Market timing, taxes and capital structure: evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints t3mvs, Center for Open Science.
    3. Cheng-Few Lee & Chengru Hu & Maggie Foley, 2021. "Differential risk effect of inside debt, CEO compensation diversification, and firm investment," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 505-543, February.
    4. Lee, Jin-Ping & Lin, Edward M.H. & Lin, James Juichia & Zhao, Yang, 2020. "Bank systemic risk and CEO overconfidence," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    5. Theophilus Lartey & Albert Danso, 2022. "CEO overconfidence and debt covenant violations," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 162-199, March.
    6. Ulrike Malmendier & Vincenzo Pezone & Hui Zheng, 2023. "Managerial Duties and Managerial Biases," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(6), pages 3174-3201, June.
    7. Audrey Hsu & Cheng-Few Lee & Sophia Liu, 2022. "Book-tax differences, CEO overconfidence, and bank loan contracting," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 437-472, February.
    8. Huang, Ronghong & Tan, Kelvin Jui Keng & Faff, Robert W., 2016. "CEO overconfidence and corporate debt maturity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 93-110.
    9. Bharati, Rakesh & Doellman, Thomas & Fu, Xudong, 2016. "CEO confidence and stock returns," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 89-110.
    10. Bilgehan TEKİN, 2019. "The Factors Affecting Capital Structure: A Panel Data Analysis in the Context of Behavioural Corporate Finance," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 27(42).
    11. Hardeep Singh Mundi & Parmjit Kaur, 2022. "CEO Overconfidence and Capital Structure Decisions: Evidence from India," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 47(1), pages 19-37, March.
    12. Patrice Fontaine & Sujiao Zhao, 2021. "Suppliers as financial intermediaries: Trade credit for undervalued firms," Post-Print hal-03507994, HAL.
    13. Ulrike Malmendier, 2018. "Behavioral Corporate Finance," NBER Working Papers 25162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. David Hirshleife, 2015. "Behavioral Finance," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 133-159, December.
    15. Deshmukh, Sanjay & Goel, Anand M. & Howe, Keith M., 2021. "Do CEO beliefs affect corporate cash holdings?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    16. Shoaib Ali & Attiya Yasmin Javid, 2015. "Relationship between Credit Rating, Capital Structure and Earning Management Behaviour: Evidence from Pakistani Listed Firms," PIDE-Working Papers 2015:121, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    17. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate & Jonathan Yan, 2010. "Overconfidence and Early-life Experiences: The Impact of Managerial Traits on Corporate Financial Policies," NBER Working Papers 15659, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Kenneth Yung & Xiang Long, 2022. "CEO overconfidence and the adjustment speed of leverage and cash: evidence on cash is not the same as negative debt," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 1081-1108, August.
    19. Aktas, Nihat & Louca, Christodoulos & Petmezas, Dimitris, 2019. "CEO overconfidence and the value of corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 85-106.
    20. Andrew Vivian & Bin Xu, 2018. "Time-varying managerial overconfidence and pecking order preference," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 799-835, April.

    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:wly:ijfiec:v:25:y:2020:i:4:p:547-564. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1076-9307/ .

    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.