Underinvestment Problem

Underinvestment problem

The mirror image of the asset substitution problem, in that stockholders refuse to invest in low-risk assets to avoid shifting wealth from themselves to debtholders.

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Underinvestment Problem

A situation in which a company refuses to make low-risk investments to the detriment of bondholders. The company does this in order to placate its shareholders, who seek a higher return, but this exposes bondholders to more risk without the promise of a higher return. That is, the high-risk investments or projects may not perform as expected, resulting in bankruptcy, but the nature of bonds does not allow them to participate in any extra rewards from these investments or projects. The underinvestment problem may encourage bondholders to sell their bonds. See also: Asset substitution problem.