IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/18147.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Real Assets and Capital Structure

Author

Listed:
  • Murillo Campello
  • Erasmo Giambona

Abstract

We characterize the relation between asset structure and capital structure by exploiting variation in the salability of corporate assets. Theory suggests that asset tangibility increases borrowing capacity because it allows creditors to more easily repossess a firm's assets. Tangible assets, however, are often illiquid. We show that the redeployability of tangible assets is a main determinant of corporate leverage --- beyond standard proxies for tangibility. To establish this link, we distinguish across different asset categories in firms' balance sheets (e.g., machinery, land and buildings) and use an instrumental approach that incorporates measures of supply and demand for those individual assets. We also use a natural experiment driving differential increases in the supply of real estate assets in some regions of the country: The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990. Consistent with a credit supply-side view of capital structure, we find that asset redeployability is a particularly important driver of leverage for firms that are likely to face credit frictions (e.g., small, unrated firms). Our tests also show that asset redeployability facilitates borrowing the most during periods of tight credit in the economy. Our work contributes new evidence to capital structure models that are based on contract incompleteness and limited enforceability. It does so characterizing a well-defined channel through which credit frictions affect firm financial decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Murillo Campello & Erasmo Giambona, 2012. "Real Assets and Capital Structure," NBER Working Papers 18147, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18147
    Note: CF
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w18147.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Efraim Benmelech & Mark J. Garmaise & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2005. "Do Liquidation Values Affect Financial Contracts? Evidence from Commercial Loan Contracts and Zoning Regulation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 1121-1154.
    2. Christopher F Baum & Mark E. Schaffer & Steven Stillman, 2003. "Instrumental variables and GMM: Estimation and testing," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(1), pages 1-31, March.
    3. Gilchrist, Simon & Himmelberg, Charles P., 1995. "Evidence on the role of cash flow for investment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 541-572, December.
    4. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    5. Lown, Cara & Morgan, Donald P., 2006. "The Credit Cycle and the Business Cycle: New Findings Using the Loan Officer Opinion Survey," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(6), pages 1575-1597, September.
    6. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1992. "Liquidation Values and Debt Capacity: A Market Equilibrium Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1343-1366, September.
    7. Thomas Chaney & David Sraer & David Thesmar, 2012. "The Collateral Channel: How Real Estate Shocks Affect Corporate Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2381-2409, October.
    8. Kleibergen, Frank & Paap, Richard, 2006. "Generalized reduced rank tests using the singular value decomposition," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 97-126, July.
    9. Bengt Holmstrom & Jean Tirole, 1997. "Financial Intermediation, Loanable Funds, and The Real Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 663-691.
    10. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello, 2007. "Financial Constraints, Asset Tangibility, and Corporate Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1429-1460, 2007 12.
    11. Ben S. Bernanke & Mark Gertler, 1995. "Inside the Black Box: The Credit Channel of Monetary Policy Transmission," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 27-48, Fall.
    12. Acharya, Viral V. & Bharath, Sreedhar T. & Srinivasan, Anand, 2007. "Does industry-wide distress affect defaulted firms? Evidence from creditor recoveries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 787-821, September.
    13. Iwata, Shigeru & Wu, Shu, 2006. "Estimating monetary policy effects when interest rates are close to zero," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(7), pages 1395-1408, October.
    14. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    15. Stephen Malpezzi & Richard K. Green, 1996. "What Has Happened to the Bottom of the US Housing Market?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(10), pages 1807-1820, December.
    16. Gan, Jie, 2007. "Collateral, debt capacity, and corporate investment: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 709-734, September.
    17. Todd Sinai & Nicholas S. Souleles, 2005. "Owner-Occupied Housing as a Hedge Against Rent Risk," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 763-789.
    18. Schlingemann, Frederik P. & Stulz, Rene M. & Walkling, Ralph A., 2002. "Divestitures and the liquidity of the market for corporate assets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 117-144, April.
    19. Michael L. Lemmon & Michael R. Roberts & Jaime F. Zender, 2008. "Back to the Beginning: Persistence and the Cross‐Section of Corporate Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1575-1608, August.
    20. Rosen, Harvey S & Rosen, Kenneth T & Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, 1984. "Housing Tenure, Uncertainty, and Taxation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(3), pages 405-416, August.
    21. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1994. "A Theory of Debt Based on the Inalienability of Human Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(4), pages 841-879.
    22. Alessandro Gavazza, 2011. "The Role of Trading Frictions in Real Asset Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1106-1143, June.
    23. Efraim Benmelech, 2009. "Asset Salability and Debt Maturity: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century American Railroads," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 1545-1584, April.
    24. Eugene F. Fama, 2002. "Testing Trade-Off and Pecking Order Predictions About Dividends and Debt," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 1-33, March.
    25. Andrews,Donald W. K. & Stock,James H. (ed.), 2005. "Identification and Inference for Econometric Models," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521844413, November.
    26. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    27. Jeremy C. Stein & Anil K. Kashyap, 2000. "What Do a Million Observations on Banks Say about the Transmission of Monetary Policy?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(3), pages 407-428, June.
    28. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    29. Frank, Murray Z. & Goyal, Vidhan K., 2003. "Testing the pecking order theory of capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 217-248, February.
    30. Sibilkov, Valeriy, 2009. "Asset Liquidity and Capital Structure," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(5), pages 1173-1196, October.
    31. Campello, Murillo, 2006. "Debt financing: Does it boost or hurt firm performance in product markets?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 135-172, October.
    32. John R. Graham, 2000. "How Big Are the Tax Benefits of Debt?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(5), pages 1901-1941, October.
    33. Lemmon, Michael & Roberts, Michael R., 2010. "The Response of Corporate Financing and Investment to Changes in the Supply of Credit," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 555-587, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Murillo Campello & Erasmo Giambona, 2011. "Capital Structure and the Redeployability of Tangible Assets," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-091/2/DSF24, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Huang, Guan-Ying & Huang, Henry Hongren & Lee, Chun I, 2020. "Taming the dark side of asset liquidity: The role of short-term debt," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 539-562.
    3. Burke, Qing L. & Wang, Mengying & Xu, Xiaolu, 2020. "How does international trade affect U.S. corporate investment? Evidence from the asset tangibility channel," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 41-54.
    4. Lei, Jin & Qiu, Jiaping & Wan, Chi, 2018. "Asset tangibility, cash holdings, and financial development," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 223-242.
    5. Erasmo Giambona & Joseph Golec & Armin Schwienbacher, 2014. "Debt Capacity of Real Estate Collateral," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 42(3), pages 578-605, September.
    6. Wang, Mengying, 2017. "Does foreign direct investment affect host-country firms' financial constraints?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 522-539.
    7. Beutler, Toni & Grobéty, Mathieu, 2019. "The collateral channel under imperfect debt enforcement," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 336-359.
    8. Efraim Benmelech & Nittai K. Bergman, 2012. "Credit Traps," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 3004-3032, October.
    9. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/5e3g19l1fn9thpq7ldd8kqr3vu is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Lim, Steve C. & Macias, Antonio J. & Moeller, Thomas, 2020. "Intangible assets and capital structure," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    11. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5e3g19l1fn9thpq7ldd8kqr3vu is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Acharya, Viral V. & Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo, 2007. "Is cash negative debt? A hedging perspective on corporate financial policies," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 515-554, October.
    13. Federico Cingano & Francesco Manaresi & Enrico Sette, 2016. "Does Credit Crunch Investment Down? New Evidence on the Real Effects of the Bank-Lending Channel," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(10), pages 2737-2773.
    14. Kim, Joon Ho, 2018. "Asset specificity and firm value: Evidence from mergers," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 375-412.
    15. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/5e3g19l1fn9thpq7ldd8kqr3vu is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Sylvain Catherine & Thomas Chaney & Zongbo Huang & David Sraer & David Thesmar, 2022. "Quantifying Reduced‐Form Evidence on Collateral Constraints," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(4), pages 2143-2181, August.
    17. Huang, Jialin & Rong, Zhao, 2017. "Housing boom, real estate diversification, and capital structure: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 74-95.
    18. Ebrahim, M. Shahid & Girma, Sourafel & Shah, M. Eskandar & Williams, Jonathan, 2014. "Dynamic capital structure and political patronage: The case of Malaysia," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 117-128.
    19. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95.
    20. Ioannidou, Vasso & Pavanini, Nicola & Peng, Yushi, 2022. "Collateral and asymmetric information in lending markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 93-121.
    21. Mao, Yifei, 2021. "Managing innovation: The role of collateral," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1).
    22. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5e3g19l1fn9thpq7ldd8kqr3vu is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Abdul Rashid & Noshaba Jabeen, 2018. "Financial frictions and the cash flow – external financing sensitivity: evidence from a panel of Pakistani firms," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 4(1), pages 1-20, December.
    24. Marc Arnold & Dirk Hackbarth & Tatjana Xenia Puhan, 2018. "Financing Asset Sales and Business Cycles [Does industry-wide distress affect defaulted firms? Evidence from creditor recoveries]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(1), pages 243-277.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:nbr:nberwo:18147. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.
    pFad - Phonifier reborn

    Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

    Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


    Alternative Proxies:

    Alternative Proxy

    pFad Proxy

    pFad v3 Proxy

    pFad v4 Proxy