Vivian_Optimistic Disclosure Tone and Conservative Debt Policy_Abacus_accepted version_open access.pdf (439.52 kB)
Optimistic disclosure tone and conservative debt policy
journal contribution
posted on 2017-10-27, 08:24 authored by Ali Ataullah, Andrew VivianAndrew Vivian, Bin XuWe examine the relationship between managerial optimism and debt conservatism (i.e. the low-leverage puzzle). Our analysis demonstrates that optimistic tone, our time-varying optimism measure, significantly decreases leverage. This evidence supports the proposition that optimistic managers who consider external financing as unduly costly use debt conservatively. This reduced reliance on external financing can be explained by our further evidence that optimistic tone significantly increases cash holdings and decreases dividend payment. The negative tone-leverage relation is stronger in the presence of high insider purchase of own stocks which confirms that optimistic tone reflects managerial optimism. This study suggests that managerial optimism can help explain the low-leverage puzzle.
History
School
- Business and Economics
Department
- Business
Published in
AbacusVolume
54Issue
4Pages
445-484Citation
ATAULLAH, A., VIVIAN, A.J. and XU, B., 2017. Optimistic disclosure tone and conservative debt policy. Abacus, 54 (4), pp.445-484.Publisher
© Accounting Foundation, The University of Sydney. Published by WileyVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: ATAULLAH, A., VIVIAN, A.J. and XU, B., 2017. Optimistic disclosure tone and conservative debt policy. Abacus, 54 (4), pp.445-484., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/abac.12140. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived VersionsAcceptance date
2017-08-04Publication date
2018-09-30Copyright date
2018ISSN
0001-3072Publisher version
Language
- en