Dr. San Martín-Mosqueira, Pablo

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how gender diversity and remuneration of boards of directors’ influence earnings quality for Spanish-listed firms. Design/methodology/approach: The sample includes 105 nonfinancial Spanish firms from 2013 to 2018, corresponding to an unbalanced panel of 491 firm-year observations. The primary empirical method uses a Tobit semiparametric estimator with firm- and industry-level fixed effects and an innovative set of measures for earnings quality developed by StarMine. Findings: Results exhibit a positive correlation between increased gender diversity and a firm’s earnings quality, suggesting that a gender-balanced board of directors is associated with more transparent financial reporting and informative earnings. We also find a nonmonotonic, concave relationship between board remuneration and earnings quality. This indicates that beyond a certain point, excessive board compensation leads to more opportunistic manipulation of financial reporting with subsequent degradation of earnings quality. Research limitations/implications: This study only covers nonfinancial Spanish listed firms and is silent about how alternative board features’ influence earnings quality and their informativeness. Originality/value: This study introduces measures of earnings quality developed by StarMine that have not been used in the empirical literature before as well as measures of board gender diversity applied to a suitable Tobit semiparametric estimator for fixed effects that improves the precision of results. In addition, while most of the literature focuses on Anglo-Saxon countries, this study discusses board gender diversity and board remuneration in the underexplored context of Spain. Moreover, the hand-collected data set comprising financial reports provides previously untested board features as well as a nonlinear relationship between remuneration and earnings quality that has not been thoroughly discussed before.

This study considers the firm’s affiliation with business groups and the ownership structure as determinants of leverage decisions in Chilean firms. The major findings show that group-affiliated firms take advantage of internal capital markets and transactions with related parties (e.g., low transference price or loans at competitive interest rates) that reduces the demand for external debt. Majority shareholders in affiliated firms behave as controllers of managers, on the one hand, and avoid the supervisory role of debt, on the other hand. In stand-alone firms, supervision led by majority shareholders is complemented by the monitoring role of debt through higher levels of leverage. We conclude that further developments in capital structure theories adjusted to the particularities of the different institutional contexts are needed

This study analyses the impact of firm-level variables as well as country-level institutional factors on firm value in the Latin American region. The theoretical framework used to develop the research hypotheses has followed a corporate governance approach. The sample includes public firms from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru for the 1997–2013 period. The main findings indicate that ownership concentration, capital structure, and dividend policy are significant drivers of the market value of the firm. The results from determinants at the country-level show that legal enforcement and regulatory systems positively impact the market value of the firm, whilst the findings show unexpected results concerning the development of the financial system.

The goal of this paper, which follows a corporate governance approach, is to assess whether within country changes in governance (e.g. in legal and regulatory systems and financial development) and changes in corporate ownership concentration can predict a change in the value of Latin American firms. Using fixed-effect panel data models with a representative sample of firms for the period from 1997 to 2013, we observe that the investors’ rights and their legal protection as well as the rule of law are associated with a premium in the firm market value. Contrary to what was expected, in immature financial markets, as found in Latin America, firms take advantage of both the asymmetries of information and the multiple market frictions to be overvalued. So, as the financial system develops, firm value drops. At the firm-level, results confirm the hypothesis of the expropriation of minority shareholders.

Purpose: The way business practice adjusts to the models proposed by financial theory has been under moderate yet constant scrutiny from the academic world. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this line of research by showing CFOs’ perceptions of Spanish companies with regard to their capital structure decisions. Design/Methodology: The empirical approach is examined using information gathered through a survey answered by 140 CFOs of Spanish companies during 2011. Results are obtained from mean difference tests and ordered probit estimations. Findings: The results of the paper show that managers attach importance to establishing and monitoring a target debt ratio and the capacity to maintain additional debt in order to provide financial flexibility. In addition, CFOs prefer internal financing to external, using debt when internal funds do not allow investments to be funded. Originality/Value: On the whole, the results of this research show that trade-off and pecking order theories are not alternative views of the same problem, but represent complementary approaches of how companies define their capital structures.

In this paper we analyse the relationship between the investment of Pension Fund Managers (AFPs) and the cost of corporate debt (public and private). Using a sample of 93 non-financial Chilean listed firms between 2009 and 2014, we find that AFPs increase the probability of issuing bonds. Moreover, in line with our crowding out hypothesis, we show that AFPs increase the cost of bank borrowing. In line with the monitoring view, we find that AFPs decrease bond yields. On average, our results suggest that AFPs improve corporate governance by influencing information disclosure and by reducing the intensity of lending relationships with banks.

The purpose ofthis paper is to analyze the traditional drivers ofthe capital structure, in addition to others particularities ofthe Chilean corporate sector. Using panel data methodology, this study examines the potential drivers of the capital structure in a sample of 157 Chilean firms. To do that, this study also includes variables not commonly used in the literature (e.g. ownership concentration, business groups affiliation, and dividends), as distinctive elements of the Chilean corporate sector. Our results show a positive effect of firm size and ownership concentration on firms leverage; as well as a negative effect of the pay-out policy, growth opportunities, non-debt tax shields, and profitability on the leverage. Some expected relationships in theAnglo-Saxon context are also curiously observed in Chile. Nevertheless, there are some relations that are not in line with the current literature such as the negative relationship between asset tangibility and leverage. Finally, firms’ affiliation to economic groups allows them to take advantage of internal capital markets, increasing leverage. This suggests that some of the insights from the current theoretical bodies are not portable across countries, and consequently, much remains to be done in order to understand the impact of different institutional features on capital structure choices. Emerging markets provide a challenge to existing models that need to be reformulated to accommodate the characteristics of these markets. This study contributes in this direction by taking into consideration the particularities of an emerging Latin American Economy.

Capital structure theories are unable to properly explain the zero-debt puzzle, frequently observed in firms around the world. Our paper’s contribution is to identify the variables that measure either firm’s characteristics or environmental effects, in order to explain why firms have and eventually keep a debt-free policy. Our study includes a comprehensive sample of firms from 47 countries in the period 1996–2014. Our results indicate that all equity companies are small, with no growth opportunities, with a low level of tangible assets, high proportion of liquid assets, profitable, and with diluted insider ownership. Furthermore, it is more probable to find low levels of debt in countries with good governance indicators or when the economy is not growing.