Debt and Ownership Structure: Evidence from Italy
Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society, Vol. 16, No. 5
Posted: 18 Sep 2016
Date Written: October 1, 2016
Abstract
Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between the debt and ownership structure of a sample of Italian listed companies in order to measure the role assumed in the control and monitoring of agency costs.
Design/methodology/approach: This study examines a balanced panel data using both a Random Effects Model and a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model in order to better capture any problems related to the endogeneity of the variables in the model.
Findings: The results provide evidence of a positive relationship between debt and ownership concentration on the one hand, and a negative relationship between debt and institutional investors on the other hand. The debt seems to assume both functions, i.e., the disciplinary role of substitute at low levels of ownership concentration and a complementary role at high levels of ownership concentration.
Practical Implications: This study provides three practical implications. The first is that the complementary between debt and ownership concentration provides evidence of the entrenchment effect and tends to weaken the company financially. Second, the results also provide useful prompts to policy makers who should encourage the presence of institutional investors.
Third, the policy makers should also encourage the expansion of the stock market in order to enhance the protection of shareholders, reduce private control benefits and provide Italy the same opportunities as other common and civil law countries to collect risk capital, avoiding the abuse of debt.
Originality/Value: The empirical results suggest that ownership concentration increases the degree of corporate debt, whereas institutional investors assume the disciplinary role of monitoring and controlling agency costs. The results provide evidence of both the entrenchment effect and the alignment-of-interests hypothesis and that the expropriation theory seems to prevail over the control and monitoring role.
Keywords: corporate ownership, GMM, panel data, corporate governance, corporate finances, public companies, Debts
JEL Classification: G23, G32, G34
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation