Long-term investment, the cost of capital and the dividend and buyback puzzle

The paper argues that interest rates are at extremely low levels to support banks, and the search for yield has pushed the liquidity driven speculative bubble from real estate, derivatives and structured products markets into the corporate debt market. Equities have rallied strongly too. This asset...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Blundell-Wignall, Adrian
Other Authors: Roulet, Caroline
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Paris OECD Publishing 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: OECD Books and Papers - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 02540nma a2200241 u 4500
001 EB001831109
003 EBX01000000000000000997555
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 180616 ||| eng
100 1 |a Blundell-Wignall, Adrian 
245 0 0 |a Long-term investment, the cost of capital and the dividend and buyback puzzle  |h Elektronische Ressource  |c Adrian, Blundell-Wignall and Caroline, Roulet 
260 |a Paris  |b OECD Publishing  |c 2013 
300 |a 14 p.  |c 21 x 28cm 
653 |a Finance and Investment 
700 1 |a Roulet, Caroline 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b OECD  |a OECD Books and Papers 
024 8 |a /10.1787/fmt-2013-5k41z8t05l8s 
773 0 |t OECD Journal: Financial Market Trends 
856 4 0 |a oecd-ilibrary.org  |u https://doi.org/10.1787/fmt-2013-5k41z8t05l8s  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a The paper argues that interest rates are at extremely low levels to support banks, and the search for yield has pushed the liquidity driven speculative bubble from real estate, derivatives and structured products markets into the corporate debt market. Equities have rallied strongly too. This asset cycle is certainly helping banks reduce hidden losses on illiquid securities and could also help reduce the cost of equity. But for this to occur at current bond yields would require an unrealistic bubble in equities. Markets are assuming that this transition from low to higher rates (more in line with nominal GDP) can be handled smoothly by policy makers, when in fact this may not be so. Extreme volatility would risk new financial fragility problems. The paper presents a panel model using more than 4 000 global companies and shows that the Capex decision in general depend on the cost of equity, the accelerator and uncertainty, whereas buybacks are driven mainly by the gap between the cost of equity and debt. Right now the incentive structure implied by very low interest rates, which may be sustained for a long time, together with tax incentives, works directly against longterm investment. Debt finance is cheap, while the cost of equity capital needed for risky long-term investment is still high. This combination provides a direct incentive for borrowing to carry out buybacks (de-equitisation). Noting that weak investment reduces potential GDP, the paper makes some policy suggestions. JEL Classification: G15, G32, G28, E52. Keywords: Long-term investment, interest rates, de-equitisation, cost of capital, dividend and buybacks, monetary policy