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Financing and Corporate Growth under Repeated Moral Hazard

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  • Anderson, Ronald
  • Nyborg, Kjell

Abstract

This Paper considers the impact of financial contracting on growth by exploring a model where entrepreneurs initially do R&D but subsequently need both outside investors to provide funds for capital investments and outside managers to operate the firm efficiently some time after assets are in place. The source of contracting inefficiency is that insiders can divert cash flows for their own benefit. We employ a repeated game framework which allows us to model outside equity as well as inside equity and debt. We call our framework the two-stage model of firm growth. A key finding is that outside equity promotes ex post efficiency (second stage growth) at the expense of ex ante efficiency (first stage growth), while debt works the opposite way. This is because equity promotes replacement of the entrepreneur, while debt promotes entrenchment. So debt has the disadvantage that it is less conducive to the implementation of second stage growth than equity, but the advantage that it provides the entrepreneur with more incentives to do R&D in the first place. Furthermore, equity is fragile, in the sense that moral hazard may be so high that investors will not finance the firm, regardless of the discount rate. In contrast, debt financing definitely can be raised for low discount rates. A prediction of the model is that in a cross-section of firms, we should observe a preponderance of highly levered, closely-held firms which have stagnated after an early growth phase.

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  • Anderson, Ronald & Nyborg, Kjell, 2001. "Financing and Corporate Growth under Repeated Moral Hazard," CEPR Discussion Papers 2920, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:2920
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    Cited by:

    1. Anderson, Ronald W. & Bustamante, Maria Cecilia & Guibaud, Stéphane, 2012. "Agency, firm growth, and managerial turnover," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 43144, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Elisabeth Mueller, 2008. "Benefits of control, capital structure and company growth," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(21), pages 2721-2734.
    3. Hans K. Hvide & Todd Kaplan, 2003. "A Theory of Capital Structure with Strategic Defaults and Priority Violations," Microeconomics 0311001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ronald Anderson & Cecilia Bustamante & Stéphane Guibaud, 2013. "Agency, Firm Growth, and Managerial Turnover," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/2gg54vdji29, Sciences Po.
    5. Anderson, Ronald W. & Bustamante, Maria Cecilia & Guibaud, Stéphane, 2012. "Agency, firm growth, and managerial turnover," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119042, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Ronald W. Anderson & Kjell G. Nyborg, 2002. "Agency and the Pace of Adoption of New Techniques," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 68(1), pages 203-220.
    7. Ronald Anderson & Cecilia Bustamante & Stéphane Guibaud, 2013. "Agency, Firm Growth, and Managerial Turnover," Working Papers hal-03470530, HAL.
    8. Julia Hirsch & Uwe Walz, 2011. "Financing Decisions along a Firm’s Life†cycle: Debt as a Commitment Device," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 17(5), pages 898-927, November.
    9. Julia Hirsch & Uwe Walz, 2009. "Financing Decisions Along a Firm’s Life Cycle: Debt as a Commitment Device," Working Papers 0409, Universidad Iberoamericana, Department of Economics.
    10. Timothy Fogarty & Michel Magnan & Garen Markarian & Serge Bohdjalian, 2009. "Inside Agency: The Rise and Fall of Nortel," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(2), pages 165-187, January.
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2gg54vdji291pb220pomk85ev8 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Kjell G. Nyborg & Ron Anderson, 2001. "Financial Development, Agency and the Pace of Adoption of New Techniques," FMG Discussion Papers dp389, Financial Markets Group.
    13. Bach Nguyen & Nguyen Phuc Canh, 2021. "Formal and informal financing decisions of small businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1545-1567, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate growth; Incomplete financial contracting; Outside equity; Debt; Repeated moral hazard;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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