Leverage Effect on Investment Efficiency

ISBN-13: 9783845402154 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 112 str.

Diana Gustafsson; Per Sundqvist

Opis

This book studies the effects of leverage on investment efficiency in Swedish listed firms 1997-2005. The effects are studied separately for over- and underinvesting firms. To measure investment efficiency we employ three different measures: marginal q, absolute investments (defined as capital expenditures plus research and development expenditures) and Tobins Q. The application of three different investment efficiency measures is one of the main contributions of this study. The investment efficiency of overinvesting firms was hypothesized to be improved by higher leverage. The results based on marginal q accepted this hypothesis. The absolute investments and Tobins Q results could not accept nor reject the hypothesis, but indicated an improvement of investment efficiency for overinvesting firms as a result of increased leverage. For underinvesting firms, investment efficiency was hypothesized to decrease with leverage. The marginal q and Tobins Q results rejected this hypothesis. The absolute investments results could only accept this hypothesis on the 10% significance level. Thus, the results indicate that investment efficiency increases with leverage for both groups of firms.

O autorze

Diana Gustafsson holds a M.Sc. in Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE). She has a background within banking and insurance and is currently active as a management consultant at Ernst & Young. Per Sundqvist holds a M.Sc. in Finance from SSE. He has a background within management consulting and is currently an investment manager.