Do Financially Constrained Firms Earn Higher Returns than the Unconstrained Firms? A Comprehensive Evidence from Pakistan Stock Exchange

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between financial constraints and the stock returns explaining the pricing of stock through financially constrained and unconstrained firms in Pakistan. Three proxies; total assets, tangible to total assets and cash holding to total assets ratios) have been used for financial constraints and the study tried to investigate that either the investors are compensated for taking the extra risk or not in Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). We find that the financially constrained firms don’t earn higher returns when their capital structure is heavy with liquid assets and their cash flows are more than the unconstrained firms in PSX. Moreover, the time series results showed that the risk-adjusted returns of the most constrained firms give the mix and somewhat negative and significant and insignificant results for the Pakistani firms listed in PSX sorted based on tangible to total assets and Cash holding to total asset ratios. Keywords: Asset Pricing, Financial constraints, risk-adjusted performance of portfolios