Theory suggests that the risk and return characteristics of all firms are influenced by capital structure decisions, product mix and company size. The primary hypothesis for this paper, stated in broadest terms, is that nonbank activities influence the risk and return characteristics of BHCs. Specifically, are risk and return affected by the combination of investment in nonbank activities, size, and capital structure, beyond the impact of the variables considered independently?
A pooled cross-sectional time series regression is used to explore the relationship between several dependent variables measuring risk and/or return and various explanatory variables. Dependent variables include the risk of individual BHC failure, the variability of return on equity and assets, the level of returns and risk adjusted returns. Explanatory variables include leverage in nonbank subsidiaries, the percentage of BHC assets devoted to nonbank activities. BHC equity, a variable, H. which is the Sharpe Measure divided by the Treynor Index, and several dummy variables. The dummy variables are included to capture shifts in the intercept, and when interacted with other explanatory variables, the slope coefficients as well. These dummy variables provide the means for exploring the interaction effects of leverage, nonbank activities and diversification with size.
Results overall indicate that the impact of the explanatory variables on risk is very influenced by size. The results also indicate that incremental changes in size lead to shifts in sensitivity to the explanatory variables that profoundly affect the relationships between the explanatory variables and risk. The findings also indicate that results in some
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