Family control and cost of debt: Evidence from Thailand

Authors

Tanapond Swanpitak, University of WollongongFollow
Xiaofei Pan, University of WollongongFollow
Sandy Suardi, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

143995

Publication Details

Swanpitak, T., Pan, X. & Suardi, S. (2020). Family control and cost of debt: Evidence from Thailand. Pacific Basin Finance Journal, 62 101376-1-101376-20.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the incentives behind controlling families' financing decisions which help sustain their firms' long-term survivorship. Using a sample of hand-collected ownership of Thai listed companies for the period 2009–2015, we show that family firms in Thailand have lower debt financing cost compared to non-family firms. The lower cost of external debt financing predominates in highly profitable family firms insofar that these firms are reputable and concerned with their long-term survivorship. Further, family firms benefit from the strong and trustworthy relationships they established with creditors, which help to alleviate information asymmetry in Thailand's weak institutional environment. Our results are robust to possible confounding effect of bank-connected lending, possible endogeneity issues, different proxies for family control and control variables, and the use of matched samples.