c. The offset opens the door tomanipulating CL by overstating and smoothing the firm's FCF to increase its
estimated market value.
2.3. Assets, liabilities and risk distortion
Like FCF calculations, empirical studies of capital structure often ignore CL or their subset of trade credit by
implicitly offsetting themagainst CA. This paper questions the rationale behind this practice. The offset directly
distorts the firm's debt ratios of Debt/Equity and (Long-Term)/(Short-Term).3 In addition, the offset hides
but does not mitigate the default risk attached to short-termliabilities. The offset understates the firm's leverage.
Finally, the offset distorts the firm's measured financial risk by changing the overall risk profile of its
assets and liabilities.
3. Empirical evidence
A significant number of finance textbooks define FCF as follows:
FC F ¼ EBIT þ Depreciation−Taxes− Capital expenditures−Increase in NWC
4
where EBIT stands for Earnings Before Interest and Tax. The change in NetWorking Capital (ΔNWC) includes
Full or Partial Offset of CL against CA, calculated by