Browsing by Author "Sogorb Mira, Francisco"

We analyze the relevance of adjustment costs in keeping Spanish public firms away from their target leverage. We argue that firm's cash flow outcomes determine the importance of the adjustment costs on capital structure changes. Then, we estimate capital structure adjustment speeds across three different cash flow realizations. We report that during years in which either over-levered or under-levered Spanish public firms make changes in their financing decisions, as a result of their high cash flow realizations, they close significantly more of the gap between current and target capital structure than those firms with intermediate and low cash flow observations. Moreover, independently of the cash flow level, we find that leverage adjusts more quickly for over-levered than for under-levered firms.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) on Spanish sovereign debt. Design/methodology/approach: The authors assess the impact of the PSPP on Spanish Government bonds from two different transmission channels (the signalling and the portfolio substitution) with two effects for each of them (the announcement and the expectation effects for the former and the stock and the rebalancing effects for the latter). The empirical study has been undertaken with event study methodology, controlled by macroeconomic variables, panel data and cross-sectional regression analyses. Findings: The results show that both the ECB’s purchases under the PSPP and the announcements reduced Spanish Government bond yields. Compared to previous literature the Spanish Government bond yields reductions are larger than those for other countries. Research limitations/implications: The authors’ approach to the impact of investors’ expectations is interesting, although they cannot draw evidence on this issue due to the lack of data. Practical implications: From an economic perspective, the ECB can change economic agents’ expectations without actually carrying out any programme, only by announcing such a programme. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature examining the PSPP from different transmission channels in Spain, taking into account the announcements, the expectations, the purchases and the variation in debt holdings relating to the PSPP from the beginning of the programme until 2020. Due to the large degree of heterogeneity across euro area countries, the results in this paper should improve our understanding of the relative differences in the impact of the PSPP and, thus, be of interest to academics and policymakers.

En el presente artículo se estudia el mercado europeo para el comercio de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. De manera específica, se profundiza en los rasgos característicos del mercado de la contaminación, y se realiza un análisis comparativo entre las Bolsas de CO2 y los mercados OTC. Dentro de las Bolsas europeas de CO2, se hace un especial énfasis en la única plataforma de negociación existente en España, SENDECO2. Tras un estudio de la evolución de la cotización de la tonelada de CO2 a lo largo del periodo 2005-2007, se constata que las bondades y el buen funcionamiento de un mercado secundario dependen en gran medida de cuán afinada y eficiente haya sido la oferta o asignación previa de derechos de emisión a las empresas contaminantes.

In spite of the fact that there is empirical evidence that debt tax benefits add to firm value, additionalresearch is needed to explain the apparently conservative debt policy of many firms. This study exam-ines whether the costs of debt and non-debt tax related issues might shed some light on the apparent“conservative leverage puzzle” for Spanish listed firms throughout the period 2007–2013. Specifically,we compare the costs of financial distress with the potential tax benefits of debt. In addition, we testwhether debt conservativeness, measured by the kink, is explained by different costs of debt and non-debt tax shields. Our findings suggest that the most conservative Spanish listed firms may not be actingsub-optimally with respect to the tax advantage of debt financing. Furthermore, the results obtained areconsistent with the belief that debt costs might offset the tax benefits stemming from debt financing, anddebt and non-debt tax shields could act as substitutes. / nA pesar de que existe evidencia empírica de que las ventajas fiscales de la deuda se suman al valour de laempresa, es necesaria más investigación para explicar la política de deuda aparentemente conservadorade muchas empresas. Este estudio analiza si las cuestiones fiscales de la deuda y aquellas no relacionadascon la deuda podrían arrojar algo de luz sobre el aparente «rompecabezas de fuerza conservadora»de las empresas cotizadas espa˜nolas durante el período 2007-2013. Específicamente se comparan loscostes de dificultades financieras con las ventajas fiscales de la deuda. Además, probamos si el conser-vadurismo de la deuda, medido por el colapso, se explica por los diferentes costes de los escudos fiscalesrelacionados con la deuda o alternativos a esta. Nuestros resultados sugieren que las empresas cotizadasespa˜nolas más conservadoras quizá no estén actuando de manera subóptima respecto a la ventaja fiscalde la financiación de la deuda. Además, los resultados obtenidos son coherentes con la creencia de quelos costes de la deuda podrían contrarrestar las ventajas fiscales derivadas de la financiación de la deuda,y los escudos fiscales relacionados con la deuda y alternativos a la deuda podrían actuar como sustitutos.

Purpose: This study aims to identify whether Latin American (LA) firms are adopting any hedging strategy when designing Foreign Exchange Risk (FXR) measures. To that end, we explore the impact of several drivers of FXR management. Design/methodology/approach: The sample consists of 342 non-financial listed firms established in a group of representative countries of the LA region and covers the period from 2008 to 2016. Hypothesis testing is performed through a Logit model that measures the likelihood to adopt hedging practices. In addition, a Tobit test offers further insights into the derivatives users. Findings: We corroborate capital structure related hypotheses such as tax goals, financial distress, liquidity, and growth opportunities. In addition, both, ownership concentration and income tax payable seem to be negative and significant determinants of FXR coverage. Originality/value: Results reported in this study are relevant for the LA region with high tradition in raw materials and commodities exports. Our results show that LA firms still make limited use of derivatives and there is still much room for improvement. Hence, additional efforts to promote FXR hedging should be desirable, to meet authorities’ recommendations (OECD, World Bank, and IMF, 2007). Further research exploring Corporate Governance (CG) relationships and differences between large and small firms might be helpful.

La Comisión Europea ha planteado un itinerario digital para los países miembros de la Unión Europea (UE) cuyo objetivo es abordar el reto de la transformación digital para 2030, lo que nos permitirá mejorar nuestra competitividad y bienestar al mismo tiempo que cuidamos del planeta. En este artículo, utilizaremos los datos de la UE, de España y los recogidos en una encuesta propia realizada a las Mercas, para elaborar un análisis comparativo del nivel de digitalización y el empleo de especialistas TIC (Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicaciones) de dichas Mercas con el de las empresas españolas y de la UE. Cabe destacar, entre los resultados obtenidos, que en los indicadores referidos al uso de software ERP (Enterprise Resource Management), tecnologías cloud y la realización de acciones de comunicación social media, las Mercas se encuentran por encima de la media de las PYMEs de la Unión Europea y de España.

Tesis estructurada en tres ensayos empíricos sobre Economía Financiera. Nuestro primer capítulo se centra en los determinantes de las empresas que pertenecen a un grupo de empresas y el comportamiento que presentan éstas a la hora de cubrir sus necesidades de financiación o déficits financieros. En un segundo capítulo, centramos nuestro análisis desde un punto de vista de finanzas de mercado. Concretamente, analizamos el comportamiento a largo plazo en el mercado de las empresas que han mantenido en algún momento del periodo de nuestra muestra una política financiera conservadora. En el tercer y último capítulo de esta tesis, se estudia la influencia de la aversión al riesgo a la velocidad de ajuste hacia el endeudamiento objetivo de las empresas cotizadas españolas. Para poder ver la influencia de la aversión al riesgo se estima la aversión al riesgo en la economía española basada en datos de consumo

Primer trabajo de investigación sobre la transformación digital (TD) de las unidades alimentarias (Mercas). Revisión del concepto de TD, creación de un índice sintético para su medición, evaluación de resultados mediante datos contables y uso de un modelo de datos de panel Tobit, para evaluar cuáles son los principales determinantes del estado de TD de las Mercas.

This article explores the cash–cash flow relationship by comparing financially constrained and financially unconstrained companies. Unlike previous research, we test the sensitivity of cash to cash flow by considering unlisted firms as constrained and listed firms as unconstrained. Our empirical evidence is based on findings from Spanish firms and is consistent with the core rationale that unlisted firms face more difficulties than their listed counterparts when looking for funding from external markets. As a result, unlisted firms tend to hoard significant amounts of cash out of the generated cash flow, while listed firms do not. Our findings are robust to a number of additional empirical tests.

The potentially important impact of taxation on corporate financing decisions is widely recognized despite the fact that the empirical evidence is far from conclusive. In this study, we assess the debt tax benefits of Spanish listed firms throughout the period 2007-2013. Specifically, using a simulation approach, we found the capitalized value of gross interest deductions amounts to approximately 6.4% of firms’ market value, while the net debt benefit (of personal taxes) is estimated at 2.1%, in contrast to the traditional 11.4% (i.e. marginal tax rate times debt). Conversely, the panel data regression approach reveals a 13.6% (34.2%) debt tax shield in terms of firm (debt) value. This evidence supports the view that taxes influence corporate decision-making and that debt makes a reasonable contribution to firm value.

The principal aim of this paper is to test how firm characteristics affect Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) capital structure. We carry out an empirical analysis of panel data of 6482 non-financial Spanish SMEs during the five years period 1994–1998, modelling the leverage ratio as a function of firm specific attributes hypothesized by capital structure theory. Our results suggest that non-debt tax shields and profitability are both negatively related to SME leverage, while size, growth options and asset structure influence positively SME capital structure; they also confirm a maturity matching behaviour in this firm group.

The principal aim of this paper is to test how firm characteristics affect Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) capital structure. We carry out an empirical analysis over a panel data of 6482 non–financial Spanish SMEs along the five-year period 1994–1998, modelling the leverage ratio as a function of firm specific attributes hypothesized by capital structure theory. Our results suggest that non–debt tax shields and profitability are both negatively related to SME leverage, while size, growth options and asset structure influence positively on SME capital structure; they also confirm a maturity matching behaviour in this firm group.

In this paper, we explore two of the most relevant theories that explain financial policy in small and medium enterprises (SMEs): pecking order theory and trade-off theory. Panel data methodology is used to test the empirical hypotheses over a sample of 6482 Spanish SMEs during the five-year period 1994–1998. The results suggest that both theoretical approaches contribute to explain capital structure in SMEs. However, while we find evidence that SMEs attempt to achieve a target or optimum leverage (trade-off model), there is less support for the view that SMEs adjust their leverage level to their financing requirements (pecking order model).

En este trabajo, examinamos los determinantes de la financiación mediante deuda intragrupo y su relación con otras alternativas de financiación, especialmente la deuda externa. Realizamos un análisis de datos de panel con una muestra de 787 empresas no financieras españolas, que financian sus operaciones de manera recurrente mediante deuda intragrupo durante el periodo que abarca entre 2013 y 2018. Nuestros resultados muestran como la deuda intragrupo depende positivamente del tamaño y la tangibilidad de los activos, mientras que la rentabilidad, la edad y el crecimiento mantienen una relación negativa. También observamos como tener una mayor financiación mediante deuda intragrupo supone reducir hasta en una cuarta parte la financiación con deuda externa. Además, identificamos la existencia de una jerarquía de preferencias en la selección de distintas fuentes de financiación, donde la deuda intragrupo cumple mejor con la teoría de la jerarquía de preferencias que la deuda externa.

Los impuestos son, económica y estadísticamente, determinantes importantes de la estructura de capital de las empresas y, por tanto, no son un factor de segundo orden en las decisiones de endeudamiento de las empresas. Así lo prueba el trabajo de investigación realizado al que nos referiremos en las siguientes líneas.