Determinants of capital structure choice: a study of the Indian corporate sector

Existing empirical research on capital structure has been largely confined to the United States and a few other advanced countries. This paper attempts to study the capital structure choice of Less Developed Countries (LDCs) through a case study of the Indian Corporate sector. The objective is to develop a model that accounts for the possibility of restructuring costs in attaining an optimal capital structure and addresses the measurement problem that arises due to the unobservable nature of the attributes influencing the optimal capital structure. The evidence presented here suggests that the optimal capital structure choice can be influenced by factors such as growth, cash flow, size, and product and industry characteristics. The results also confirm the existence of restructuring costs in attaining an optimal capital structure.