在本篇論文中,我們將台灣上市櫃公司分為北,中,南三區,並檢驗地域性差異是否會對企業向金融機構貸款之條件造成影響。根據過去的財務理論做假設,監督成本與資訊不對稱皆會使中南部企業相較於北部企業承受較差的貸款利率(亦即貸款利率與同期無風險利率利差較大),原因在於金融機構多聚集於北部,基於距離的因素,銀行對中南部企業的監督成本以及資訊不對稱的程度應較北部企業為高。此外,中南部大企業與中小企業間的利差差異亦應大於北部企業的尺寸效應。 然而,在此篇論文中,我們以台灣上市櫃企業為研究對象發現,實證結果顯示南部企業相較於北部企業,反而享有顯著較低的貸款利率。除此之外,我們發現企業大小的差異在中南部以及在北部上並無顯著不同。此一實證結果,在本篇論文中尚無明確可以解釋的原因,我們期待未來的研究可以有更周延的解釋。
In this paper, we examine whether the loan spreads are affected by the firms’ locations. According to monitoring cost theory and information asymmetry, the firms in the middle and southern areas of Taiwan should pay higher interest rates than the firms in the northern area because the distance might increase the borrowers’ monitoring costs and the degree of information asymmetry. Beside, the difference in interest rates between large firms and small firms should be higher in the middle and southern areas than in the northern area. However, in Taiwan’s case, we found that the firms in southern area enjoy lower bank spread than their counterparts in the northern area. Furthermore, we found no significant difference of the size spread between the middle and southern areas and the northern area. The regression result of our study shows a puzzle that we are hard to explain in current period. We expect to find a reasonable explanation in the future studies.