时间：2019年10月17日（周四）9:30-11:00
地点：中北校区理科大楼A207
主讲题目：Financial Structure and Oligopoly: The R&D Effect
主讲人：Victor Song博士
Abstract：Financial structure is an important decision variable for firms, and varies significantly across industries. Capital intensive industries such as manufacturing and utilities tend to have relatively high debt-equity ratios. In contrast, research intensive industries, such as those in the high tech sector, issue much less debt. Conventional wisdom is that financial distress costs are the most important explanatory factor for this variation in financial structure. In this paper, we offer an alternative theory to explain why financial structure varies across industries. We focus on the relationship between financial structure and R&D in an oligopoly context. There are two distinct types of R&D -- process R&D, which lowers the cost of producing a given product, and product R&D, which changes product characteristics and/or improves product quality. Our key insight is that process R&D is complementary with the strategic use of debt to improve a firm's market position under oligopoly. As in Brander and Lewis (1986), firms have an incentive to use debt to commit themselves to a more aggressive position in the output market. Process R&D strengthens this effect. Product R&D, on the other hand, increases product differentiation, weakens head-to-head competition between oligopolistic rivals, and reduces the incentive to use debt for strategic purposes. As manufacturing industries and utilities make relatively more use of process R&D, while high-tech industries undertake relatively more product R&D, we can explain why the high-tech industries make relatively less use of debt and have much lower debt to equity ratios.
演讲人简介：Victor Song 博士毕业于加拿大卡尔加里大学（University of Calgary）; 获得经济学与金融学双博士学位, 其师宗为欧元之父‐罗伯特. 蒙代尔。现任教于加拿大西蒙菲莎大学（Simon Fraser University）彼迪商学院金融系 （Beedie School of Business）. 在教学和科研方面Victor Song 博士都表现非常突出, 多次获得加拿大西门菲沙大学和卡尔加里大学授予的最佳教学奖; 在Economics of Transition 等SSCI 期刊发表论文多篇, 并且正在与加拿大经济学会主席 Dr. James Brander 共同合作关于资本结构与企业竞争方面的研究。同时，作为彼迪商学院代表任职西门菲莎大学理事会，参与制定大学政策和今后的战略发展方向。在赴西蒙菲莎大学任教前Victor Song 博士曾在加拿大前总理Stephen Harper 智囊团任职两年，在任期内，和团队主要从事关于大国贸易协定和亚投行方面的研究，其研究成果为加拿大最终加入亚投行作出了积极贡献.