Financial Distress, Liquidity Policy, and Financing Policy: A Comparison of Korea and the United States

Abstract

This paper develops models for identifying the interrelationship between a firm's probability of financial distress and both its liquidity and financial policy decisions. And it empirically investigates the models using both Korea Stock Exchange firm panel data and those of a matched industry sample of Nasdaq firms from the United States. The results for both the Korean and the U.S. samples provide strong evidence that a higher level of liquidity and a lower level of debt are consistent with a firm having a lower probability of financial distress. Results also show that financial distress and financial policy are important determinants of a firm's liquidity policy. Finally, results show that there is a negative relationship between liquidity policy and debt financing, and a positive relationship between financial distress and the level of debt financing.