实体企业金融化:高利润诱惑抑或高成本压力?

Financialization of Real Enterprises:Temptation of High Profits or Pressure of High Costs?

在现代企业制度及治理体系下,满足股权和债权投资者的资本报酬率要求成为企业首要任务,故而企业始终面临资本成本压力。金融领域的高利润不仅是实体企业金融化的逐利诱因,还通过推高资本成本而成为实体企业金融化的压力因素。高资本成本会减少满足实体企业成本要求的实业投资机会,促使其通过金融投资获益以减缓资本成本压力。基于2007—2020年非金融上市公司样本的实证结果支持了这一结论,而且权益资本表现出比债务资本更高的逐利性,给企业施加更强的成本压力,进而加剧企业金融化程度。进一步分析表明,不同所有权性质、盈利能力和资产专用性的企业在资本成本压力对其金融化的影响中存在异质性;行业垄断、套利空间等市场因素也由于关系到作用机制的发挥而在双方关系中表现出一定的调节效应。上述结论为通过“金融让利”及“节制资本”以促进实体企业“脱虚返实”提供了有益启示。

Under the modern enterprise system and governance system, meeting the requirements of return on capital required by equity and debt investors has become the primary purpose of enterprises, so enterprises always face the pressure of capital cost. The high profits in the financial field are not only the profit-seeking incentive of the financialization of real enterprise, but also the pressure factors of its financialization by pushing up the capital cost. High capital costs will reduce the industrial investment opportunities that meet the cost requirements of real enterprises, and promote enterprises to benefit from financial investments to alleviate capital cost pressures. The empirical results based on the sample of non-financial listed companies from 2007 to 2020 support this conclusion, and equity capital shows higher profit-seeking than debt capital, which exerts stronger capital cost pressure on enterprises, thus aggravating the degree of corporate financialization. Further analysis shows that enterprises with different nature of ownership, profitability and asset specificity have heterogeneity in the influence of capital cost pressure on their financialization;market factors such as industry monopoly and arbitrage space also play a moderating role in the impact of capital cost on the financialization of enterprises because they are related to the mechanism of investment opportunities. The above conclusions provide useful enlightenment for promoting real enterprises to “return from virtual reality” through “financial interest concessions” and “regulation of capital”.