The Empirical Evidences of Market Timing Theory on Taiwan Listed Company

本研究主要欲針對市場擇時理論進行實證研究，研究期間橫跨1990年至2008年，以台灣上市公司為研究樣本，主要欲探討兩大議題：第一部分驗證台灣上市公司是否會在權益資金成本相對較低時，進行外部權益融資，而使公司之槓桿下降；反之，觀察其是否會在權益資金成本相對較高時，進行負債融資，而使公司槓桿上升。研究方法參考Huang and Ritter(2009)之方法，使用剩餘收益模型估計權益資金成本，並以權益風險溢酬作為衡量市場擇時行為的代理變數，探討權益資金成本的大小是否會透過淨權益的發行而影響公司資本結構，並加入公司特徵變數與總體市況變數作為控制變數。實證結果顯示在公司有財務資金需求的前提下，公司的負債比例與權益風險溢酬之間存在正向的關係，此結果符合市場擇時理論之預期。第二部分討論過去依據資金成本之高低所進行的市場擇時融資行為是否會影響公司的資本結構。實證結果發現市場擇時行為對公司資本結構的影響力會在三年後消逝，對資本結構只具有短期的影響效果。This paper examines market timing theory on Taiwan listed company during 1990－2008, and focus on two topics. In the first part, we want to test whether firms fund larger proportion of their financing deficit with external equity when cost of equity is relatively low. We refer to Huang and Ritter (2009), using residual income model to estimate the firm’s implied cost of equity, and let implied equity risk premium as a market timing proxy. Consistent with the market timing theory, the empirical evidences show that the effect of financing deficit on leverage is positively related to the implied equity risk premium. In the second part, we test whether the historical values of cost of equity have persistent impact on current capital structure. We find about three years impacts, indicating that past market timing financing behavior have short-term effects on firm’s capital structure