Managerial Ability and External Financing

Abstract

This research examines the link between managerial ability and firms’ external financing. Our findings show that firms with more able managers tend to mitigate information risk by reducing their loan financing and increasing equity financing. These findings are more prominent for financially unconstrained and well-governed firms, suggesting that high-ability managers are more apt to use equity financing as a financial source in firms with better financial and governance quality. To address potential endogeneity problems, we document that the impact of managerial ability on external financing remains unchanged after we employ yearly regression, change analysis, quantile regression, and the instrumental variable approach.