IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/abacus/v56y2020i2p268-287.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fama's Ratio and the Effect of Operating Leverage on the Cost of Capital Under CAPM

Author

Listed:
  • David Johnstone

Abstract

The firm's operating leverage is its ratio of fixed to variable costs. It is widely understood that production settings with higher fixed costs and lower variable costs are high risk. Well‐rehearsed CAPM arguments show how the firm's beta and cost of capital is higher when its proportion of fixed costs is higher. Importantly, that generalization holds under CAPM if expected total costs are constant and merely re‐apportioned between fixed and variable, but does not hold if expected total costs change. In actual business contexts, higher fixed costs are intended to bring lower unit variable costs and often lower expected total costs. Allowing for such efficiency gains, the firm's risk‐adjusted cost of capital might typically fall despite the higher operating leverage. Formal proof follows directly from the payoffs or ‘certainty equivalent’ expression of CAPM. The CAPM insights and new CAPM equations brought to light in this proof are surprising and useful.

Suggested Citation

  • David Johnstone, 2020. "Fama's Ratio and the Effect of Operating Leverage on the Cost of Capital Under CAPM," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(2), pages 268-287, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:56:y:2020:i:2:p:268-287
    DOI: 10.1111/abac.12191
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/abac.12191
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/abac.12191?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. Stapleton, Richard C, 1971. "Portfolio Analysis, Stock Valuation and Capital Budgeting Decision Rules for Risky Projects," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 26(1), pages 95-117, March.
    2. Levy,Haim, 2012. "The Capital Asset Pricing Model in the 21st Century," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107006713, December.
    3. Coles, Jeffrey L. & Loewenstein, Uri & Suay, Jose, 1995. "On Equilibrium Pricing under Parameter Uncertainty," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(3), pages 347-364, September.
    4. Fama, Eugene F., 1977. "Risk-adjusted discount rates and capital budgeting under uncertainty," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 3-24, August.
    5. Philipp Krüger & Augustin Landier & David Thesmar, 2015. "The WACC Fallacy: The Real Effects of Using a Unique Discount Rate," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(3), pages 1253-1285, June.
    6. Chen, Qi & Schipper, Katherine, 2016. "Comments and Observations Regarding the Relation Between Theory and Empirical Research in Contemporary Accounting Research," Foundations and Trends(R) in Accounting, now publishers, vol. 10(2-4), pages 314-360, August.
    7. Beedles, William L., 1978. "Evaluating Negative Benefits," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 173-176, March.
    8. Levy,Haim, 2012. "The Capital Asset Pricing Model in the 21st Century," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521186513, December.
    9. Coles, Jeffrey L. & Loewenstein, Uri, 1988. "Equilibrium pricing and portfolio composition in the presence of uncertain parameters," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 279-303, December.
    10. David Johnstone, 2017. "Sensitivity of the Discount Rate to the Expected Payoff in Project Valuation," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 126-136, June.
    11. Lev, Baruch, 1974. "On the Association between Operating Leverage and Risk," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 627-641, September.
    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. Martina K. Linnenluecke & Tom Smith & Yun Shen & Yushu Zhu & Zini Liang, 2020. "What Does the CAPM Say About Operating Leverage?," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(2), pages 288-291, June.
    2. D. J. Johnstone, 2021. "Accounting information, disclosure, and expected utility: Do investors really abhor uncertainty?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 3-35, January.
    3. David Johnstone & Steve Tulig, 2022. "Hamada’s equation and the beta of debt under CAPM," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2385-2399, June.

    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. Johnstone, David & Havyatt, David, 2022. "Sophistry and high electricity prices in Australia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. David Johnstone, 2017. "Sensitivity of the Discount Rate to the Expected Payoff in Project Valuation," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 126-136, June.
    3. D. J. Johnstone, 2021. "Accounting information, disclosure, and expected utility: Do investors really abhor uncertainty?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 3-35, January.
    4. David J Johnstone, 2023. "Capital budgeting and Kelly betting," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 48(3), pages 625-651, August.
    5. Guerard, John, 2023. "Harry Markowitz: An appreciation," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1496-1501.
    6. Paugam, Luc, 2011. "Valorisation et reporting du goodwill : enjeux théoriques et empiriques," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/8007 edited by Casta, Jean-François.
    7. Jorgensen, Bjorn & Li, Jing & Sadka, Gil, 2012. "Earnings dispersion and aggregate stock returns," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-20.
    8. Jonathan Lewellen & Jay Shanken, 2002. "Learning, Asset‐Pricing Tests, and Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(3), pages 1113-1145, June.
    9. Christian Leuz & Catherine Schrand, 2009. "Disclosure and the Cost of Capital: Evidence from Firms' Responses to the Enron Shock," NBER Working Papers 14897, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Alejandro Bernales & Marcela Valenzuela & Ilknur Zer, 2023. "Effects of Information Overload on Financial Markets: How Much Is Too Much?," International Finance Discussion Papers 1372, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    11. Manuel Galea & David Cademartori & Roberto Curci & Alonso Molina, 2020. "Robust Inference in the Capital Asset Pricing Model Using the Multivariate t -distribution," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-22, June.
    12. David Johnstone & Steve Tulig, 2022. "Hamada’s equation and the beta of debt under CAPM," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2385-2399, June.
    13. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.
    14. Dempsey, Stephen J. & Sheng, Hainan, 2023. "Dividend change announcements, ROE, and the cost of equity capital," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    15. Ng, Anthony C. & Rezaee, Zabihollah, 2015. "Business sustainability performance and cost of equity capital," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 128-149.
    16. John B. Guerard, 2024. "Sir David Hendry: An Appreciation from Wall Street and What Macroeconomics Got Right," Working Papers 2024-001, The George Washington University, Department of Economics, H. O. Stekler Research Program on Forecasting, revised Feb 2024.
    17. Rajaratnam, Myuran & Rajaratnam, Bala & Rajaratnam, Kanshukan, 2014. "A novel equity valuation and capital allocation model for use by long-term value-investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 483-494.
    18. David Johnstone, 2020. "Reply to Linnenluecke, Shen, Smith, Zhu, and Liang (2020)," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(2), pages 292-294, June.
    19. Jieshuang He, 2016. "Endogenous Bank Networks and Contagion," CAEPR Working Papers 2016-005, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Department of Economics, Indiana University Bloomington.
    20. Manuel Galea & Patricia Giménez, 2019. "Local influence diagnostics for the test of mean–variance efficiency and systematic risks in the capital asset pricing model," Statistical Papers, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 293-312, February.

    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:bla:abacus:v:56:y:2020:i:2:p:268-287. 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.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0001-3072 .

    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.