国际区别在权益资本费用(pdf 43页)

     This paper examines international differences in firms’ cost of equity capital across 40 countries. We analyze whether the effectiveness of a country’s legal institutions and securities regulation is systematically related to cross-country differences in the cost of equity capital. We employ four different models using analyst forecasts to estimate firms’ implied cost of capital. We find that countries with extensive securities regulation and strong enforcement mechanisms exhibit lower levels of cost of capital than countries with weak legal institutions, even after controlling for various risk and country factors. The effects are strongest for institutions providing information to investors and enabling them to privately enforce their contracts. We also show that, consistent with theory, these effects become substantially smaller or insignificant as capital markets become more integrated.
     In this paper, we examine international cost of equity capital differences across 40 countries. Recent research suggests that countries’ legal institutions are a key determinant of financial market development, capital and ownership structures, dividend policies, and firms’ equity valuations (e.g., La Porta et al, 1997, 2000a and 2002). Based on this evidence, we investigate whether the effectiveness of a country’s legal institutions has a systematic influence on its firms’ cost of equity capital, over and above traditional risk and country factors.
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