本篇論文首次證明公司的成本若較僵固，則會有較高的債務成本。我們的結果支持過去有關僵固成本的爭論：當銷售下降時，僵固成本會導致較高的獲利降、增加現金流量波動度，因而使公司違約風險升高。我們也同時發現當公司未來有較高的市場不確定性時，僵固成本對於債務成本的影響將更為顯著。由於債務融資是公開發行公司籌措外務資金的重要來源，本研究提供了對於重要的不對稱成本行為的經濟後果的認知。

This paper offers the first empirical evidence that firms with sticker cost enjoy a higher cost of debt financing, proxied by at-issue yield spreads of bond offerings. Our finding is consistent with the argument that greater decrease in profits due to sticky costs when activ-ity level falls increases the cash flow volatility, thereby resulting in higher default risk. The results also indicate that the impact of cost stickiness is greater in situations where there is greater market uncertainty about a firm’s future. Since debt financing is an important source of external financing for publicly traded firms, the results have important implica-tions on our understanding of the economic consequences of asymmetric behavior of costs.

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