Shareholder personal risk and firm risk: An empirical analysis of share pledges and firm debt policies

The impact of personal risk caused by controlling shareholders' equity pledges on the company's debt policy is an issue worth exploring. Using Chinese A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2020, this paper studies the impact of ultimate owner equity pledges on firm debt size and debt matur...

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Main Authors: Jiahui Xia, Zhanchi Wu, Rongwu Zhang, Xiangyi Chen, Rui Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-11-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1010162/full
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author Jiahui Xia
Zhanchi Wu
Rongwu Zhang
Xiangyi Chen
Rui Zhang
author_facet Jiahui Xia
Zhanchi Wu
Rongwu Zhang
Xiangyi Chen
Rui Zhang
author_sort Jiahui Xia
collection DOAJ
description The impact of personal risk caused by controlling shareholders' equity pledges on the company's debt policy is an issue worth exploring. Using Chinese A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2020, this paper studies the impact of ultimate owner equity pledges on firm debt size and debt maturity structure and explores the mechanism of ultimate owner personal leverage on firms. The results show that the increase in ultimate owner stock pledges leads to higher financial leverage and a longer debt maturity structure for the company. In addition, the study reveals that the high personal leverage of the ultimate owner of the pledged equity is an influential mechanism driving the transfer of personal risk to the firm. In particular, even if a company's actual debt ratio is higher than its target debt ratio, equity pledges can prompt listed companies to increase their debt ratios and debt maturities, causing them to take on excessive debt risk and transfer the risk to creditors. It follows that the tunneling effect is a driving force of equity pledging and corporate debt policies. These results remain robust after the robustness test and endogenous test. The conclusions of this paper not only emphasize the impact of shareholders' personal risk on the firm but also provide a reference for investors' perception of firm risk.
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spelling doaj.art-e16b8bb3b56b48809c2aca2a521c729d2022-12-22T04:14:34ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-11-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.10101621010162Shareholder personal risk and firm risk: An empirical analysis of share pledges and firm debt policiesJiahui Xia0Zhanchi Wu1Rongwu Zhang2Xiangyi Chen3Rui Zhang4School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou, ChinaSchool of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou, ChinaSchool of Management, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, ChinaSchool of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou, ChinaDepartment of Economics, Jinan University, Guangzhou, ChinaThe impact of personal risk caused by controlling shareholders' equity pledges on the company's debt policy is an issue worth exploring. Using Chinese A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2020, this paper studies the impact of ultimate owner equity pledges on firm debt size and debt maturity structure and explores the mechanism of ultimate owner personal leverage on firms. The results show that the increase in ultimate owner stock pledges leads to higher financial leverage and a longer debt maturity structure for the company. In addition, the study reveals that the high personal leverage of the ultimate owner of the pledged equity is an influential mechanism driving the transfer of personal risk to the firm. In particular, even if a company's actual debt ratio is higher than its target debt ratio, equity pledges can prompt listed companies to increase their debt ratios and debt maturities, causing them to take on excessive debt risk and transfer the risk to creditors. It follows that the tunneling effect is a driving force of equity pledging and corporate debt policies. These results remain robust after the robustness test and endogenous test. The conclusions of this paper not only emphasize the impact of shareholders' personal risk on the firm but also provide a reference for investors' perception of firm risk.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1010162/fullshare pledgedebt policytunnelpersonal riskrisk shiftingrisk-taking
spellingShingle Jiahui Xia
Zhanchi Wu
Rongwu Zhang
Xiangyi Chen
Rui Zhang
Shareholder personal risk and firm risk: An empirical analysis of share pledges and firm debt policies
Frontiers in Psychology
share pledge
debt policy
tunnel
personal risk
risk shifting
risk-taking
title Shareholder personal risk and firm risk: An empirical analysis of share pledges and firm debt policies
title_full Shareholder personal risk and firm risk: An empirical analysis of share pledges and firm debt policies
title_fullStr Shareholder personal risk and firm risk: An empirical analysis of share pledges and firm debt policies
title_full_unstemmed Shareholder personal risk and firm risk: An empirical analysis of share pledges and firm debt policies
title_short Shareholder personal risk and firm risk: An empirical analysis of share pledges and firm debt policies
title_sort shareholder personal risk and firm risk an empirical analysis of share pledges and firm debt policies
topic share pledge
debt policy
tunnel
personal risk
risk shifting
risk-taking
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1010162/full
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