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Capital Structure and Financial Risk: Evidence from Foreign Debt Use in East Asia
Author(s) -
Allayannis George,
Brown Gregory W.,
Klapper Leora F.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1046/j.1540-6261.2003.00619.x
Subject(s) - currency , local currency , debt , external debt , internal debt , monetary economics , foreign exchange risk , financial crisis , financial system , business , economics , currency crisis , finance , macroeconomics
Using a data set of East Asian nonfinancial companies, we examine a firm's choice between local, foreign, and synthetic local currency (hedged foreign currency) debt. We find evidence of unique as well as common factors that determine each debt type's use, indicating the importance of examining debt at a disaggregated level. We exploit the Asian financial crisis as a natural experiment to investigate the role of debt type in firm performance. Surprisingly, we find that the use of synthetic local currency debt is associated with the biggest drop in market value, possibly due to currency derivative market illiquidity during the crisis.