【作者】 杨雯；

【导师】 张东辉；

【作者基本信息】 山东大学 ， 产业经济学， 2009， 博士

【摘要】 资本结构与产品市场竞争之间的关系,涉及公司金融学和产业经济学两个不相关的学术领域。一直以来,由于假设条件的限制,对于企业资本结构决策和产品市场经营决策的研究在这两个不同的领域分别展开。直到20世纪80年代,这种研究上的分割现象才引起经济学界的广泛关注,经济学家开始从不同的角度对企业资本结构与产品市场竞争之间的相互关系进行研究。研究结果发现企业的资本结构决策和产品市场竞争策略是企业发展过程中两项最重要的决策,这两项决策之间存在着密切的相关关系。从理论研究的文献可以看出,目前对于企业资本结构与产品市场竞争之间关系的研究并没有形成一个统一的理论分析框架,资本结构与产品市场竞争之间的关系也没有形成一致的认识,已有的研究从不同的假设前提出发,得出了两种不同的观点:一种是资本结构促进了市场竞争的观点,另一种是资本结构减弱了竞争的观点,研究的最终结果取决于产品市场竞争的不同类型和企业产品市场行为的不同侧面。已有的实证研究结论分别验证了理论分析的两种不同的观点,特别是国内的实证研究,在研究资本结构与产品市场竞争的关系时没有分行业进行分析,大多是以制造业全部上市公司为例。行业是影响资本结构的主要因素之一。不同的行业内部由于其竞争状况、产品周期、所有权控制等因素的不同,资本结构和产品市场竞争必然存在不尽相同的关系,把不同行业的企业放在一起进行实证分析,其结果不能说明行业在其中所起的作用。本文研究的目的在于对中国若干行业的上市公司资本结构影响产品市场竞争问题进行实证研究,检验在不同的行业中由于竞争环境的差异,资本结构影响产品市场竞争的程度,以及形成这种影响的动因。论文首先对资本结构影响产品市场竞争的动因和作用机制进行理论分析,企业有动机举债的关键在于不确定性的存在,这种不确定性来源于需求或者成本。当企业选择了较高的债务水平时,他们就会有动机实行以下产量战略:好的状况下销售更多产品,获得较高回报;差的情况下获得较少回报。股东会忽略破产状态下利润的减少,因为债权人是剩余财产的索取者。债务水平变化时,利润的分配对于股东而言,在不同的情况下有不同的变化。资本结构是一种市场信号,这种市场信号的传递通过债务的有限责任效应影响到企业的行为,进而影响行业内企业的竞争环境。其次,论文借鉴Gabrielle Wanzenried(2003)的资本结构影响产品市场竞争的理论模型,通过建立不确定需求下差别化产品的双寡头竞争模型,分析特定的产品市场特性下资本结构对产品市场竞争的影响,得出负债的增加引起产量的增加这一主要结论,这是本文实证检验的基础。论文在理论分析的基础上,运用中国上市公司若干行业的数据,对提出的理论结论进行了实证检验。首先,设立了选取行业的三个主要标准,分别为生产要素的集约程度、所处产业链和政府管制程度。在此基础上选取了医药制造业、食品饮料业、冶金业、交通运输设备制造业和批发零售业共五个行业作为实证检验的对象。其次,分别对五个行业的市场竞争特点和资本结构的变化进行了实证分析,发现各行业上市公司负债水平均低于全国平均水平,说明上市公司在资本结构选择上较为稳健,避免过高的负债率带来高风险;同时,不同行业的资本结构水平存在较大的差异。在此分析的基础上,建立了计量模型对GabrielleWanzenried(2003)的理论模型进行实证检验,检验的结果是资本结构对产品市场竞争的影响在各行业中的表现不同,其中,在属于技术密集型产业的医药制造业和属于资本密集型产业的冶金业、交通运输设备制造业三个行业中,制度性壁垒较高,其资本结构与产品市场竞争呈正相关关系,即随着企业资产负债率的增加,企业的产量也增加;在进入壁垒较低、竞争激烈的、属于劳动密集型产业的食品饮料业和批发零售业两个行业中,这种关系表现为负相关。本文的创新点首先在于对Gabrielle Wanzenried(2003)模型的检验,这是该模型运用到中国上市公司的首次检验。理论模型强调债务的战略承诺效应,即企业改变资本结构以提高其在产品市场中的战略位置,这对于分析资本结构与企业产品市场竞争策略的关系具有实际意义。其次是分行业的研究,企业所处的行业不同,行业内企业间的竞争关系也就不同,从而企业间产品市场竞争关系的行业差异性也是显著的。由于行业对资本结构的选择产生重要影响,在不同的行业中进行实证分析更有现实意义。第三是对资本结构影响产品市场竞争的作用机制进行了初步探讨,认为债务的有限责任效应是企业向市场发出的一项承诺,它向产业内的其他企业表示企业的竞争行为将更加强硬或更加温和,具有显著的信号发送能力。更多还原

【Abstract】 In the past years, the relation between capital structure and competition among firms in product market relates to two different science fields, this is of Corporate Finance and Industrial Organization. The fact that the firm’s capital structure decision and the management strategy in product market have long been studied in two isolated fields makes the failure of the two researches consider the interactions between the capital structure and the strategy of the firm in product market, resulting in the difficulty of reasonably explaining the actual corporate behavior and even opposite conclusions, due to the restraint of presuppositions. Until 1980’s, this separation in research has caused wide attention of many economists and they explored the interaction between these two decisions from various viewpoints. They find that Capital structure decision and product market decision are the two most important decisions in firms’ developing process and these two decisions have close interactions.A detailed literature review suggests that until now no consensus has been reached on the relationship between firm’s capital structure and product market competition, and no standard theoretical framework is being used in related studies as well. Starting from different presuppositions, previous research drew two contradictory conclusions, one being that capital structure accelerates market competition while the other viewing totally the opposite. Ultimate research findings seem to be conditional upon factors such as the varieties of product market competition and various aspects of firm’s product market. Existing empirical studies have attempted to testify the two viewpoints respectively. But so far domestic research has failed to analyze the variety of industries, mostly taking listed firms in the manufacturing industry as examples. The industrial nature is one of the key factors influencing capital structure. Because factors such as competition status, product cycle and control of ownership differ in different industries, the relationship between capital structure and product market competition must inevitably vary. Consequently, the findings of empirical research on firms of different industries can not fully depict the role that the industry plays. On the basis of an empirical study into a variety of listed companies in China, the present study aims at discovering two points: firstly, to what extent capital structure in various industries influence product market competition under the circumstances of different competitive environments; secondly, what are the potential causations of such influences.The paper starts with a theoretical analysis of the influences that capital structure has on product market competition. It is observed that firms choose gearing mainly because of uncertainties resulting from demand or cost. When there is a high level of debt, firms have more incentives to choose quantity strategy. Accordingly, they gain more profits with the increase of sales when everything runs well. Shareholders generally ignore the decrease of profits in the case of bankruptcy as creditors are the ones to claim the remaining possessions. For shareholders, with the change of debt, the distribution of profit varies. Capital structure seems to be a sign of the market, transmitting via limited liability of debt and impacting on firms and competitive environment among firms in the industry. The theoretical framework used by the researcher is the model of Gabrielle Wanzenried (2003) which suggests a two-stage differentiated goods duopoly model with demand uncertainty linking firms’ capital structure choices with their output market decisions, proving that the debt issue induces firms to increase their output when firms’ industrial circumstance is uncertain under an exogenous specific shock.Based on the literature review, drawing upon data collected from numerous listed companies in several industries in China, the researcher conducted an empirical study, aiming at testifying conclusions of Gabrielle Wanzenried (2003). The factors taken into consideration when choosing industries are production intensiveness, industrial chain and the degree of state control on them. Five industries such as pharmaceutical industry, food and beverage industry, metallurgy industry, transportation equipment industry as well as wholesale and retail trade are selected. Analyses of capital structure and features of market competition in the five industries reveal that the debt level is generally lower than the average nationwide. Obviously, listed companies prefer not to take high risks of too high gearing ratio. Meanwhile, there is vast difference in capital structure among industries. Findings of the study indicate that the influence of capital structure on product market competition differs in various industries. For example, in the technology-intensive industry such as pharmaceutical industry and the capital-intensive industry such as metallurgy industry and transportation equipment industry, which institutional barriers is high, capital structure has a positive impact on product market competition; while in the labor-intensive industry such as food and beverage industry, wholesale and retail trade, the two are negatively related.The innovativeness of the present research is threefold. Firstly, it is the first empirical test of Gabrielle Wanzenried’s (2003) theoretic model on listed companies in China. Secondly, it is a study on firms of different industries. There exists significant distinction in the field of product market competition among firms of different industries. As the nature of the industry is one of the key factors influencing the choice of capital structure, it is of more practical significance and achieves better objectivity to apply the test to many a different industries. Thirdly, the tentative exploration into the causations of capital structure’s effect on product market competition is of value to some extent. It is believed that firms’ limited liability of debt serves as a commitment to the market, signaling to other firms in the industry that its competitiveness would be tougher or milder.更多还原