This study investigates whether or not KOSPI 200 Index companies and newly included KOSPI 200 Index companies have impacts on the cost of debt with the sample of companies listed on the Korean securities exchange from 2001 to 2010. For the hypothesis ...
This study investigates whether or not KOSPI 200 Index companies and newly included KOSPI 200 Index companies have impacts on the cost of debt with the sample of companies listed on the Korean securities exchange from 2001 to 2010. For the hypothesis test, this paper uses two alternative measures of the cost of debt: (1) the credit ratings provided by a credit rating agency and (2) borrowing rates calculated from the information on financial statements.
The result of empirical tests shows that the credit ratings of the KOSPI 200 Index companies are significantly higher than the companies not included in the KOSPI 200 Index. This study documents that the KOSPI 200 Index companies have on average a 0.6% point lower borrowing rate than their counterparts. The reduction of the cost of debt implies that the inclusion of the KOSPI 200 index gives a favorable impact to the capital market.
The cost of debt decreases significantly for the newly included KOSPI 200 Index companies when the credit rating of Bond and borrowing interest rates are used as a proxy for the cost of debt in the regression analysis. In addition, the result of the Wilcoxon rank sum test shows that the credit ratings of commercial papers as well as the credit ratings of bonds and borrowing interest rates support the reduction of the cost of debt for the newly included KODEX 200 Index companies.
This study contributes to the literature by focusing on the relationship between the index inclusion and the cost of debt, whereas prior researches concentrated the market responses of the KOSPI 200 index inclusion.
Finally, additional research is warranted regarding the impact of the index inclusion on the cost of capital, which is another important means of funds.