Empirical Research on the Correlation between the Agency Costs and Corporate Value Based on Ownership's Concentration Degree

Abstract

In different ownership structure, the correlation between the agency costs and corporate value may be different, even completely opposite. The ownership's concentration degree is one of the most representative indexes qua the ownership structure, and it has extremely remarkable influence on the correlation between the agency costs and corporate value. The paper firstly calculates 723 Chinese listed companies' agency costs by the factor analysis method, and then analyses the correlation between the agency costs and corporate value using the curve regression method, finally draws the conclusion: When the ownership's concentration degree is more than 5000, the agency costs and corporate value firstly has a positive correlation, after the corporate value arrives to maximum, it transforms to be negative; when the ownership's concentration degree is between 20% and 500o, the agency costs and corporate value has a remarkably negative correlation, consequently we can increase the corporate value by reducing the agency costs; when the ownership's concentration degree is less than 20%, the agency costs and corporate value take on a trend of firstly having a negative correlation, then turning to be positive, finally returning to be negative. The conclusion has very important directive significance on how to improve Chinese listed companies' value.