IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhb/aarbfi/2009-04.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Investment Timing, Liquidity, and Agency Costs of Debt

Author

Listed:
  • Hirth, Stefan

    (Department of Business Studies, Aarhus School of Business)

  • Uhrig-Homburg, Marliese

    (Chair of Financial Engineering and Derivatives)

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of debt and liquidity on corporate investment in a continuous- time framework. We show that stockholder-bondholder agency conflicts cause investment thresholds to be U-shaped in leverage and decreasing in liquidity. In the absence of tax effects, we derive the optimal level of liquid funds that eliminates agency costs by implementing the first-best investment policy for a given capital structure. In a second step we generalize the framework by introducing a tax advantage of debt, and we show that an interior solution for liquidity and capital structure optimally trades off tax benefits and agency costs of debt

Suggested Citation

  • Hirth, Stefan & Uhrig-Homburg, Marliese, 2009. "Investment Timing, Liquidity, and Agency Costs of Debt," Finance Research Group Working Papers F-2009-04, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Business Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhb:aarbfi:2009-04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hha.dk/afl/wp/fin/F_2009_04.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sheridan Titman & Sergey Tsyplakov, 2007. "A Dynamic Model of Optimal Capital Structure," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 11(3), pages 401-451.
    2. Black, Fischer & Cox, John C, 1976. "Valuing Corporate Securities: Some Effects of Bond Indenture Provisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 31(2), pages 351-367, May.
    3. Lyandres, Evgeny & Zhdanov, Alexei, 2010. "Accelerated investment effect of risky debt," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2587-2599, November.
    4. Egami, Masahiko, 2009. "A framework for the study of expansion options, loan commitments and agency costs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 345-357, June.
    5. Cleary, Sean & Povel, Paul & Raith, Michael, 2007. "The U-Shaped Investment Curve: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(1), pages 1-39, March.
    6. 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.
    7. Firth, Michael & Lin, Chen & Wong, Sonia M.L., 2008. "Leverage and investment under a state-owned bank lending environment: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 642-653, December.
    8. Mauer, David C. & Sarkar, Sudipto, 2005. "Real options, agency conflicts, and optimal capital structure," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1405-1428, June.
    9. Jan Ericsson & Joel Reneby, 1998. "A framework for valuing corporate securities," Applied Mathematical Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3-4), pages 143-163.
    10. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:4:p:1777-1804 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Leland, Hayne E, 1994. "Corporate Debt Value, Bond Covenants, and Optimal Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1213-1252, September.
    12. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    13. Andrea Gamba & Alexander Triantis, 2008. "The Value of Financial Flexibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2263-2296, October.
    14. Opler, Tim & Pinkowitz, Lee & Stulz, Rene & Williamson, Rohan, 1999. "The determinants and implications of corporate cash holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 3-46, April.
    15. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:4:p:1213-1243 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Matthew T. Billett & Tao‐Hsien Dolly King & David C. Mauer, 2007. "Growth Opportunities and the Choice of Leverage, Debt Maturity, and Covenants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 697-730, April.
    17. Glenn W. Boyle & Graeme A. Guthrie, 2003. "Investment, Uncertainty, and Liquidity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(5), pages 2143-2166, October.
    18. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    19. Lyandres, Evgeny, 2007. "Costly external financing, investment timing, and investment-cash flow sensitivity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 959-980, December.
    20. Dirk Hackbarth & David C. Mauer, 2012. "Optimal Priority Structure, Capital Structure, and Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(3), pages 747-796.
    21. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    22. Bryan, Stephen & Nash, Robert & Patel, Ajay, 2006. "Can the agency costs of debt and equity explain the changes in executive compensation during the 1990s?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 516-535, June.
    23. Michael Faulkender & Rong Wang, 2006. "Corporate Financial Policy and the Value of Cash," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1957-1990, August.
    24. Moyen, Nathalie, 2007. "How big is the debt overhang problem?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 433-472, February.
    25. Robert McDonald & Daniel Siegel, 1986. "The Value of Waiting to Invest," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(4), pages 707-727.
    26. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:4:p:1717-1742 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Childs, Paul D. & Mauer, David C. & Ott, Steven H., 2005. "Interactions of corporate financing and investment decisions: The effects of agency conflicts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 667-690, June.
    28. Parrino, Robert & Weisbach, Michael S., 1999. "Measuring investment distortions arising from stockholder-bondholder conflicts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 3-42, July.
    29. Hayne E. Leland., 1998. "Agency Costs, Risk Management, and Capital Structure," Research Program in Finance Working Papers RPF-278, University of California at Berkeley.
    30. Aivazian, Varouj A. & Ge, Ying & Qiu, Jiaping, 2005. "The impact of leverage on firm investment: Canadian evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 277-291, March.
    31. Mello, Antonio S & Parsons, John E, 1992. "Measuring the Agency Cost of Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1887-1904, December.
    32. Thomas W. Bates, 2005. "Asset Sales, Investment Opportunities, and the Use of Proceeds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 105-135, February.
    33. Morellec, Erwan, 2001. "Asset liquidity, capital structure, and secured debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 173-206, August.
    34. Nash, Robert C. & Netter, Jeffry M. & Poulsen, Annette B., 2003. "Determinants of contractual relations between shareholders and bondholders: investment opportunities and restrictive covenants," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 201-232, March.
    35. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    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. Koussis, Nicos & Martzoukos, Spiros H. & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2017. "Corporate liquidity and dividend policy under uncertainty," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 221-235.
    2. Michi Nishihara & Takashi Sshibata, 2011. "Investment timing with fixed and proportional costs of external financing," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 11-29, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    3. Andres, Christian & Cumming, Douglas & Karabiber, Timur & Schweizer, Denis, 2014. "Do markets anticipate capital structure decisions? — Feedback effects in equity liquidity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 133-156.
    4. 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.
    5. Christina Vadasi & Michalis Bekiaris & Andreas Andrikopoulos, 2021. "Internal Audit Function Quality and Corporate Governance: The Case of Greece," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 25(1-2), pages 1-61, March - J.
    6. Nishihara, Michi & Shibata, Takashi, 2013. "The effects of external financing costs on investment timing and sizing decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1160-1175.
    7. Shi, Wei & Wang, Rencheng, 2012. "Dynamic internal control performance over financial reporting and external financing," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 92-109.
    8. Shibata, Takashi & Nishihara, Michi, 2015. "Investment timing, debt structure, and financing constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(2), pages 513-526.
    9. Luo, Pengfei & Song, Dandan & Chen, Biao, 2020. "Investment and financing for SMEs with bank-tax interaction and public-private partnerships," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 163-172.
    10. Kamoto, Shinsuke, 2023. "Investment decisions and financial leverage under a potential entry threat," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    11. Ebrahim, M. Shahid & Jaafar, Aziz & Omar, Fatma A. & Salleh, Murizah Osman, 2016. "Can Islamic injunctions indemnify the structural flaws of securitized debt?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 271-286.
    12. Shibata, Takashi & Nishihara, Michi, 2012. "Investment timing under debt issuance constraint," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 981-991.
    13. Takashi Shibata & Michi Nishihara, 2019. "Credit Spread And Liquidation Value-Based Debt Financing Constraint," International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance (IJTAF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(05), pages 1-27, August.
    14. Hirth, Stefan & Viswanatha, Marc, 2011. "Financing constraints, cash-flow risk, and corporate investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 1496-1509.
    15. Koussis, Nicos & Martzoukos, Spiros H. & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2017. "Corporate liquidity and dividend policy under uncertainty," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 200-214.
    16. Abubakr Saeed & Yacine Belghitar & Ephraim Clark, 2017. "Political connections and firm operational efficiencies: evidence from a developing country," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 191-224, January.
    17. Shibata, Takashi & Nishihara, Michi, 2018. "Investment timing, reversibility, and financing constraints," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 771-796.
    18. Wahyudi, Imam, 2012. "Environmental Dynamic, Business Strategy, and Financial Performance: An Empirical Study of Indonesian Property and Real Estate Industry," MPRA Paper 59717, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 08 Apr 2013.
    19. Sanyal, Paroma & Bulan, Laarni T., 2011. "Regulatory risk, market uncertainties, and firm financing choices: Evidence from U.S. Electricity Market Restructuring," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 248-268, June.
    20. Abdelnour Joseph & Aubert Nicolas & Campa Domenico, 2022. "Does employee ownership decrease agency costs? Evidence from French listed companies [L'actionnariat salarié réduit-il les coûts d'agence? Le cas des entreprises françaises cotées]," Post-Print hal-03723164, HAL.
    21. 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.
    22. Koussis, Nicos & Martzoukos, Spiros H., 2022. "Credit line pricing under heterogeneous risk beliefs," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(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. Pawlina, Grzegorz, 2010. "Underinvestment, capital structure and strategic debt restructuring," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 679-702, December.
    2. Alain Bensoussan & Benoit Chevalier-Roignant & Alejandro Rivera, 2021. "Does Performance-Sensitive Debt mitigate Debt Overhang?," Post-Print hal-03364891, HAL.
    3. Bensoussan, Alain & Chevalier-Roignant, Benoît & Rivera, Alejandro, 2021. "Does performance-sensitive debt mitigate debt overhang?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    4. Lambrecht, Bart M. & Myers, Stewart C., 2008. "Debt and managerial rents in a real-options model of the firm," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 209-231, August.
    5. Agliardi, Elettra & Andergassen, Rainer, 2009. "Last resort gambles, risky debt and liquidation policy," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 142-155, August.
    6. Egami, Masahiko, 2009. "A framework for the study of expansion options, loan commitments and agency costs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 345-357, June.
    7. Koussis, Nicos & Martzoukos, Spiros H. & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2017. "Corporate liquidity and dividend policy under uncertainty," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 221-235.
    8. Koussis, Nicos & Martzoukos, Spiros H. & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2017. "Corporate liquidity and dividend policy under uncertainty," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 200-214.
    9. Myklebust, Tor Åge, 2012. "Performance Sensitive Debt - Investment and Financing Incentives," Discussion Papers 2012/7, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    10. Jeon, Haejun & Nishihara, Michi, 2015. "The effects of business cycle and debt maturity on a firm's investment and default decisions," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 326-351.
    11. Daniela Bragoli & Flavia Cortelezzi & Pierpaolo Giannoccolo & Giovanni Marseguerra, 2020. "R&D Investment timing, default and capital structure," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 779-801, April.
    12. Hui Chen & Gustavo Manso, 2017. "Macroeconomic Risk and Debt Overhang," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(1), pages 1-38.
    13. Hong Liu & Jianjun Miao, 2006. "Managerial Preferences, Corporate Governance, and Financial Structure," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2006-020, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    14. Kamoto, Shinsuke, 2023. "Investment decisions and financial leverage under a potential entry threat," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    15. Shibata, Takashi & Nishihara, Michi, 2015. "Investment timing, debt structure, and financing constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(2), pages 513-526.
    16. Arnold, Marc & Wagner, Alexander F. & Westermann, Ramona, 2013. "Growth options, macroeconomic conditions, and the cross section of credit risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 350-385.
    17. Dan A. Iancu & Nikolaos Trichakis & Gerry Tsoukalas, 2017. "Is Operating Flexibility Harmful Under Debt?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1730-1761, June.
    18. Bart Lambrecht & Stewart C. Myers, 2005. "A Theory of Takeovers and Disinvestment," NBER Working Papers 11082, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Tan, Yingxian & Yang, Zhaojun, 2016. "Contingent capital, capital structure and investment," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 56-73.
    20. Ramona Westermann, 2018. "Measuring Agency Costs over the Business Cycle," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(12), pages 5748-5768, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    investment timing; liquidity; agency costs of debt; capital structure; real options;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhb:aarbfi:2009-04. 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: Helle Vinbaek Stenholt (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifhhadk.html .

    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.