On the relevance of ownership structure in determining the maturity of debt

I show that ownership by blockholding and board composition is an important determinant of corporate debt maturity structure. Using GMM methodology to control for the potential endogeneity of all regressors, I find a statistically and economically significant negative relation between shortterm debt and both blockholding and board structure, irrespective of the identity of shareholders. Robustness tests provide support for the hypothesis that less diversified shareholders tend to trade off underinvestment against the liquidity risk entailed in shorter maturities. Finally, I report strong evidence that the link with insider ownership is non-linear. -- debt maturity ; ownership structure ; corporate governance ; endogeneity ; GMM