When Does Information Asymmetry Affect the Cost of Capital?
研究了在完美竞争市场中信息不对称不影响资本成本，而在非完美市场中信息不对称会额外提高资本成本，并发现市场竞争程度是调节这一关系的关键变量。
ABSTRACT This paper examines when information asymmetry among investors affects the cost of capital in excess of standard risk factors. When equity markets are perfectly competitive, information asymmetry has no separate effect on the cost of capital. When markets are imperfect, information asymmetry can have a separate effect on firms’ cost of capital. Consistent with our prediction, we find that information asymmetry has a positive relation with firms’ cost of capital in excess of standard risk factors when markets are imperfect and no relation when markets approximate perfect competition. Overall, our results show that the degree of market competition is an important conditioning variable to consider when examining the relation between information asymmetry and cost of capital.