Part-Paid Stock, Corporate Finance, and Investment: Economic Consequences of the Part-Paid Stock System and Supplementary Installments in the Early 1930s of Japan
Takashi Nanjo (Deputy Director and Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies (IMES), Bank of Japan (E-mail: takashi.nanjou@boj.or.jp)) Makoto Kasuya (Professor, University of Tokyo (E-mail: kasuya@e.u-tokyo.ac.jp))
Abstract
Under Japanfs prewar capital stock system of joint-stock companies, rather than paying the full face value of a share in one lump sum, shareholders paid for stocks in multiple installments. This system was transplanted from industrialized Western nations during the Meiji Era to make it easier for investors to buy company shares and to promote capital concentrations. Company directors determined the amount of supplementary installments on part-paid stocks and when these installments were paid. The Commercial Code and Corporate articles of association specified sanctions for nonpayment, giving companies the backing needed to call in supplementary installments. Supplementary installments functioned as a last resort for corporate fund-raising in times of financial distress and played a role in corporate cash management and investment. Studies of historical documents such as financial statements and company histories show that in the early 1930s of the Great Depression, in a time of tight financial markets, many companies raised funds through supplementary installments, applying these funds to make investments and repay debts. As part of our study, we construct a new corporate financial data set with data on supplementary installments encompassing 174 firms, based on the Mitsubishi Economic Research Institutefs Honpo Jigyo-Seiseki Bunseki (Performance analysis of Japanese companies) and Toyo Keizaifs Kabushiki Gaisha Nenkan ( Company Year Book) and estimate cross-sectional investment functions for the fiscal year of 1932. Regression results suggest that while corporate investments were subject to liquidity and debt constraints, supplementary installments stabilized corporate cash management and promoted corporate investment activities.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan in its series IMES Discussion Paper Series with number
09-E-22.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Kinken) The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Kinken to update the entry or send us the correct address..
Find related papers by JEL classification: E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Capital; Investment; Capacity G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Capital and Ownership Structure G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation N15 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Growth and Fluctuations - - - Asia including Middle East N25 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Asia including Middle East
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please 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.: