Research On Financialization Of Listed Companies

In recent years,the proportion of the main income of Chinese listed companies(excluding financial or financial-like companies)has become lower and lower,which has attracted great attention from scholars at home and abroad.The study found that the serious imbalance of the macro economy has led to the widening of the income gap between different industries.Compared with the financial and real estate industries,the real economy is generally in a dilemma of declining operating profits,while the financial and real estate industries rely on policy advantages to maintain higher capital response rate.Therefore,driven by the profit-seeking nature of capital,many non-financial companies invest huge sums of money in financial assets.The development of western listed companies shows that due to the change of company development strategy and managers’ preference for financial business,there is also a trend from main business operation to financial investment.Therefore,this paper attempts to answer the following questions:Is the tendency of listed companies to be financialized a general law of company development? What are the important factors driving Chinese listed companies to participate in financial asset investment? What is the mechanism of action? What kind of macroeconomic countermeasures should the government introduce to encourage real enterprises to "get out of the virtual and into the real" ?Based on the above considerations,this paper first summarizes and analyzes the domestic and foreign literature on the concept,motivation and influencing factors of corporate financialization,and then selects the data of Chinese A-share non-financial listed companies from 2009 to 2020 as a sample to analyze the financialization of listed companies.The current situation is described.It is concluded that the number of listed companies holding financial assets is increasing year by year,the scale and proportion of financial assets of enterprises are also increasing,and some companies are over-financialized.Smaller listed companies and non-state-owned enterprises are more financialized.Then review four related theories:financial deepening and financial constraints theory,precautionary saving theory,priority financing theory and principal-agent theory.A two-way fixed-effect model is constructed for empirical analysis,and the results show that,driven by micro-factors,companies will allocate financial assets for the maximization of corporate value or the self-interest of management.The lower the profit margin of the company’s main business,the higher its willingness to participate in financial investment,and the larger the allocation scale of financial assets;the stronger the equity incentive,the management will pay more attention to maximizing the long-term value of the company,and tend to prudent industrial investment,Reduce the size of financial assets.Macroeconomic policies have a regulating effect.Due to the "reservoir" motive or the "substitution" motive,the level of economic growth and monetary policy will enhance the impact of the profit margin of main business and management equity incentives on the financialization of listed companies.Finally,distinguishing different enterprises,it is found that compared with non-state-owned enterprises,the main business profit margin and management’s equity incentives of state-owned enterprises have a greater impact on the financialization of companies.Compared with manufacturing,the main profit margin of non-manufacturing enterprises and management’s equity incentives have a greater inhibitory effect on the financialization of companies.Factors such as profit margins and management equity incentives for companies in the eastern region play a greater role in the allocation of financial assets than those in the central and western regions.This paper discusses the financialization of listed companies in my country from the perspectives of micro-company characteristics and the adjustment role of macro-economic background,in order to improve and enrich the research on the motivation of listed companies’ financialization and related antecedent factors,and to improve the company’s capital structure,optimize financial Asset allocation and improvement of the equity incentive mechanism may be of great significance.It will be of positive significance for government departments to formulate corresponding countermeasures to curb the excessive financialization of enterprises,so that the financial market can better serve the real economy,and ultimately realize the healthy development of economic operation.