R&D, Agency Costs and Capital Structure: International Evidence

We examine the impact of R&D intensity and agency costs on the value of firms across 13 economies. We find that R&D adds value while high agency costs reduce value. R&D adds value, however, even when agency costs are high. We show that in those firms where agency costs are high and R&D intensity is high the debt control hypothesis is at work. In contrast to the stylised fact of high R&D firms having low levels of debt, these firms have higher levels of deb