Laurence Booth

Capital Structures in Developing Countries

This study uses a new data set to assess whether capital structure theory is portable across countries with different institutional structures. We analyze capital structure choices of firms in 10 developing countries, and provide evidence that these decisions are affected by the same variables as in developed countries. However, there are persistent differences across countries, indicating that specific country factors are at work. Our findings suggest that although some of the insights from modern finance theory are portable across countries, much remains to be done to understand the impact of different institutional features on capital structure choices.

Do Emerging Market Firms Follow Different Dividend Policies From U.S. Firms

We find that emerging market firms exhibit dividend behavior similar to U.S. firms, in the sense that dividends are explained by profitability, debt, and the market-to-book ratio. However, empirical dividend policy equations are structurally different, indicating different sensitivities to these variables. Additionally, emerging market firms seem to be more affected by asset mix, which seems to be due to their greater reliance on bank debt. Overall, country factors are as important in dividend policies as previous studies find them to be in capital structure decisions. 2003 The Southern Finance Association and the Southwestern Finance Association.

Dividend policy and the organization of capital markets

The hypothesis that dividend policy serves as a signaling mechanism and also serves to control managerial opportunism is usually supported by empirical studies showing that firms in developed countries (e.g. the USA) smooth their dividends as noted by Lintner (Am. Econ. Rev. 46 (1956) 97). However, the theoretical justification for these results largely stems from models based on arms length contracting in capital markets. In contrast, most emerging markets have a bank centered financial system, where contracting is not normally at arms length. Consequently, this paper compares the dividend policy of companies from eight emerging markets to the policies adopted by 100 US firms over the same period. Firms in these emerging markets have more unstable dividend payments than their US counterparts. Regression results indicate that dividends are much less sensitive to past dividends. These results support the substitute view of dividend policy on the premise that the institutional structures of these developing countries make dividends a less viable mechanism for signaling and for reducing agency costs than for their US counterparts operating in more highly developed arms length capital markets.

Dividend Smoothing and Debt Ratings

We find that firms that regularly access public debt (bond) markets are more likely to pay a dividend and subsequently follow a dividend smoothing policy than firms that rely exclusively on private (bank) debt. In particular, firms with bond ratings follow a traditional Lintner (1956) style dividend smoothing policy, where the influence of the prior dividend payment is very strong and the current dividend is relatively insensitive to current earnings. In contrast, firms without bond ratings flow through more of their earnings as dividends and display very little dividend smoothing behavior. In effect, they seem to follow a residual dividend policy.

The Dividend Tax Credit and Canadian Ownership Objectives

This paper discusses the role of the dividend tax credit in determining the Canadian ownership pattern of Canadian industry. The analytic tool used is the capital-asset pricing model extended to include differential taxation of dividen ds and capital-gains income across different countries. The paper finds that changes in the dividend tax credit will have a differential impact on Canadian ownership, depending on sectoral differences in dividend yields and variances of rates of return, and the correlation structure. Empirical simulation of the model suggests that the effects are significant.

Market structure uncertainty and the cost of equity capital

The ‘cost of capital” plays a key role in the allocation of funds between different sectors of the economy. The linkage between the cost of capital and market power has been hinted at by several authors. However, no rigorous development has been made. This paper uses the simple static analysis of the capital asset pricing model to show that with more market power a firms cost of equity capital declines. Hence, firms with more market power will be able to raise equity capital at lower market rates than would the competitive firm, if the product market had been perfectly competitive.

The Influence of Production Technology on Risk and the Cost of Capital

This paper uses a time-state-preference valuation model to examine how the firms choice of technology and production method affects its equilibrium level of risk and, as a result, the firms cost of capital. A fixed and flexible method of production is analyzed for a firm using a Cobb-Douglas production function. In both cases, it is found that risk and the cost of capital decrease with the level of capital intensity. Implications are drawn for the specification of empirical tests of the determinants of risk.

Discounting expected values with parameter uncertainty

Abstract In valuing future cash flows, the standard practice is to take the current cash flow and then extrapolate at an expected growth rate, which can vary at different points in time. This practice stems from the standard way of dealing with time value of money problems under certainty. However, with uncertain cash flows, this practice underestimates the expected cash flows when the growth rates are serially correlated. As a result, both value and the equity cost, calculated as an internal rate of return, are biased low. Given the prevalence of serial correlation in the economy, this paper demonstrates how to incorporate the effects of serial correlation in a simple way and demonstrates by way of a simulation that the effects can be significant. As a result, it casts doubt on the usefulness of several standard valuation approaches and results.

Correct Procedures for the Evaluation of Risky Cash Outflows

The purpose of this paper is to determine the correct procedure for discounting cash outflows in a capital market context. Beedles has stated flatly that “the risk adjusted discount (RADR) approach should not be applied to investment projects with negative benefits” ([1], p. 176). Lewellen also has recently examined the problem because he felt that there “is something at least vaguely disturbing about the associated write-down of the present value of cash outflows for risk” ([7], p. 1332). Lewellen, however, concluded that “the standard procedure used for inflows can therefore be transferred intact. The logic is symmetric because the sign of the flows is reversed.” In a comment on Lewellen, Celec and Pettway stated that they are “in substantial disagreement with Lewellens development as well as with any implied generality of employing the standard RADR procedure in valuing cash outflow streams” ([3], P. 1061). This inappropriateness of the standard RADR approach to valuing cash outflows seems to have been accepted in the 1iterature. Kudla [6] recently claimed that it has been proved by the above authors and others that the normative rules in capital budgeting do not hold in evaluating cash outflows.

Empirical tests of the monetary approach to exchange-rate determination

There has been much discussion as to whether or not the turbulence in foreign exchange rates, that has existed since 1973, is consistent with an efficient foreign exchange market. This empirical question can only be tested relative to an equilibrium exchange-rate model. In this paper, we conduct variance tests and efficient-markets tests of three different models of exchange-rate determination; the equilibrium rational-expectations model (ERE), the currency-substitution model (CS), and Dornbuschs exchange-rate-dynamics model (ERD). We find that the uncertainty in realised exchange-rate movements can only be explained by the ERD model and that actual exchange rates could have been predicted in a manner that is inconsistent with the efficient-markets hypothesis.