自由現金流量、每股盈餘、國家間公司治理與公司績效---以世界前六大經濟市場為研究樣本

Abstract

資本市場上大都以每股盈餘做為公司評價的依據，然而其存在著盈餘管理的問題，因此若以自由現金流量為評價基礎，是否可以解決盈餘管理問題。有鑑於此，本研究利用2003年至2007年全球前六大經濟市場，包括美國、日本、德國、英國、法國與中國，經由panel regression檢視每股盈餘與自由現金流量和公司績效之關聯，接著進一步以本益比區分為高低成長機會進行群組分析，顯示每股盈餘和自由現金流量對以會計基礎的公司績效而言，不論國家別或是成長機會別皆呈顯著正向相關。所以進一步利用Vuong模型檢視，結果顯示每股盈餘解釋能力均比自由現金流量還要好。由檢視每股盈餘和自由現金流量對公司績效的關係中發現存在著國家間的差異，故公司績效可能也與國家間的公司治理有關。所以進一步考量國家間的公司治理因素進行分析。本研究為第一篇綜合探討每股盈餘、自由現金流量、國家間公司治理與公司績效間的關係，並指出每股盈餘對公司績效的解釋能力，顯著優於自由現金流量，且公司在低國家風險、良好法治環境與股東權利較強的國家，具有較好的公司績效。美國在全球六大經濟市場中具有最強的股東權利、最佳法治環境、最低的國家風險與最高的公司績效。

The capital markets frequently advocate examining the accrual earning per share (EPS) for the purpose of valuing the corporate. But it may have problems of earning management. Therefore, a recently important firm performance index, Free cash flow, may more suitable for valuing the firms. We choose the top six world economic markets---USA、Japan、Germany、UK、France、China to study. First we use panel regression to examine the relationship between EPS and FCF on firm performance, and then we separate low and high-growth opportunities firms by P/E ratio for group analysis. These results suggest that both EPS and FCF have significantly positive relationship on ROA no matter by countries and growth, so we use the method provided by Vuong, and the result shows EPS has better explanatory power on firm performance. From the effect of EPS and FCF on firm performance, we find the effect on firm performance has different results between countries, cross-country variations in firm performance may cause by the corporate governance factors. Therefore, we add the country-level corporate governance factors to discuss. This is the first paper attempt to examine the relationship between EPS、FCF、country corporate governance and firm performance. From the results, we find that EPS has more positive explanatory power for firm performance than FCF, and firms in country which with lower country risk, better quality of law enforcement, and stronger shareholder’s right will lead to have better firm performance. Therefore, U.S. is the country which has the highest shareholder’s right, the best quality of law enforcement, the lowest country risk and the best firm performance in the six economic markets.