流动性资产和资本成本外文翻译.docVIP

外文翻译 原文 ASSET LIQUIDITY AND THE COST OF CAPITAL Material Source: NBER Working Paper 2010（5） Author: Hernán Ortiz-Molina and Gordon M. Phillips Understanding what are the underlying sources of risk that drive the cross-sectional and time-series variation in firms’ cost of capital is of fundamental interest in financial economics. Previous work, including recent studies by Pástor, Sinha, and Swaminathan (2008) and Chava and Purnanandam (2009) which highlight the importance of using ex-ante measures of the cost of capital, shed light on this question. However, very little is known about how the cost of capital may be affected by the liquidity of a firm’s physical assets. Yet, asset liquidity directly affects a firm’s ability to redeploy its real assets to alternative uses and thus its flexibility in responding to a changing business environment. For example, Diamond and Rajan (2009) argue that during the recent financial crisis firms may have been unwilling to sell assets at the prevailing fire-sale prices. The importance of the constraints that illiquid asset markets impose on a firm’s ability to restructure its operations are illustrated in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.In early June 2009 Quest Communications was soliciting bids for its long-distance business, with the objectives of exiting an unprofitable business and raising cash to pay down some of its debt. Naturally, the potential buyers for this highly industry-specific asset were other telecom firms (e.g., Level 3 Communications, XO Communications, and TW Telecom). However, the potential bids were coming at a 50% discount from the target price set by Quest. At that time, Quest faced the choice of calling off the auction or accepting a significant discount. In this paper we examine whether more liquid asset markets reduce a firm’s cost of capital by increasing its operating flexibility. Our study is motivated by recent studies in both corporate finance and asset prici