Research On Railway Industry Governance From The Perspective Of Capital

In practice,railway reform in various countries(regions) is triggered by the unsustainable financial situation of railway enterprises or the heavy financial expenditure burden of the government.They also adopt different forms of reform measures such as separation of government from enterprise and enterprise restructuring.After a long period of large-scale construction,low return on capital and dependence on debt financing,China's railway industry has accumulated a large amount of debt,which seems to have entered the time window of railway reform.However,the effect of separating government from enterprise is not obvious.From the perspective of industry governance,the paper thinks that railway reform is a dynamic adjustment of railway industry governance structure in essence.What kind of industry governance structure does China Railway need?The equilibrium of capital structure is the prerequisite to ensure the sustainable development of enterprises,while the debt problem shows the serious disequilibrium of capital structure of railway enterprises.Different countries(regions) have different ways to adjust the capital structure in the process of enterprise restructuring,so as to build a differentiated industry governance structure.So,how does railway enterprise adjust its capital structure and lead to the difference of industry governance structure? In order to answer the above questions,we need a theoretical analysis framework of railway industry governance based on capital perspective.Based on this,the paper combines the governance theory with the capital theory,constructs the analysis framework of railway industry governance from the perspective of capital,combs the logical relationship between the capital structure and the industry governance structure of railway enterprises,and puts forward the influence mechanism of railway industry governance,that is,the balanced adjustment of capital structure of railway enterprises.On the basis of the analysis framework,through the establishment of the capital cycle model of railway enterprises,it is proved that railway enterprises have an equilibrium state of capital structure and adjust in this direction.Among them,the financing structure and capital allocation structure of railway enterprises play a decisive role in the process of reaching the equilibrium conditions.In addition,according to the financing structure of railway enterprises,the capital supply mechanism is divided into Market Demand Mechanism and Government Supply Mechanism.Through theoretical and empirical analysis,this paper further demonstrates that different capital supply mechanism is the root cause of the difference of industry governance structure,and makes clear the specific performance of industry governance structure under different mechanisms..The results are as follows:(1)railway enterprises have capital equilibrium conditions,that is,the return rate of capital is equal to the opportunity cost of capital;(2)the financing structure of the enterprise will affect the opportunity cost of capital,especially when the enterprise enters the capital market for financing,it will increase the opportunity cost of capital;(3)the allocation structure of capital affects the return rate of capital.The allocation structure of capital will change the governance structure among railway enterprises;(4)under the Market Demand Mechanism,railway enterprises can freely adjust the capital structure according to the capital equilibrium conditions;(5)under the Government Supply Mechanism,as the endogenous variable of capital balance of railway enterprises,the government responsibility is easy to cause the railway enterprises lack the willingness and ability to adjust the capital structure.The conclusions are as follows:(1)under the Market Demand Mechanism,the railway industry is first affected by the adjustment of its own capital structure by the railway enterprises,and the establishment of the governance structure matching the transaction attributes among the railway enterprises,and the management governance between the government and the railway industry to ensure the stability of the inter enterprise governance structure is a bottom-up transmission mechanism;(2)Under the Government Supply Mechanism,according to the institutional needs of railway enterprises to adjust their capital structure,the railway industry first establishes an effective mechanism for the government to undertake economic responsibility,and reorganizes railway enterprises to establish a governance institutional that meets the inherent requirements of capital equilibrium,which is a top-down mechanism transmission;(3)The different combinations of the Market Demand Mechanism and the Government Supply Mechanism of Railways in various countries(regions) are basically different.Under the Market Demand Mechanism,The restructuring of American freight railway enterprises proves the logical consistency of capital structure equilibrium in different stages of restructuring.Under the Government Supply Mechanism,JNR reform explains the influence of government as an endogenous variable of capital equilibrium on industry governance,and the importance of establishing an effective mechanism for the government to undertake economic responsibility.When Taiwan's high-speed rail companies seek the equilibrium of capital structure under the Market Demand Mechanism,the Taiwan authorities,as endogenous variables,lead to two debt crises of Taiwan's high-speed rail companies,and have to turn to the dynamic balance of industry governance under the Government Supply Mechanism through equity restructuring.The main innovations of the paper are:(1)the capital circulation model of railway industry is constructed according to the capital theory,and the opportunity cost of capital is an important variable affecting the capital equilibrium;(2)the economic responsibility of the government becomes the endogenous variable of the capital equilibrium of railway enterprises,which is the reason why the railway enterprises can not adjust the capital structure;(3)combining the governance theory with the capital theory,the paper puts forward the capital circulation model of the railway industry from the perspective of theoretical reasoning and empirical analysis,it proves that the influence mechanism of capital equilibrium of railway enterprises on the governance structure of railway industry,complements and improves the theoretical basis of industry governance;(4)Based on the theoretical analysis framework,this paper further studies the impact of capital supply mechanism on the differentiation of industry governance and the specific performance,which to a certain extent explains the practice of railway reform in various countries(regions);at the same time,(5)it provides some policy suggestions for China's railway industry reform: firstly,it needs to formalize the industry debt;secondly,it establishes an effective mechanism for the government to undertake economic responsibility through the form of financial intermediary;thirdly,enterprise restructuring should meet the internal requirements of capital structure adjustment under the market demand mechanism.