This paper examines the interplay between the real and financial decisions of the competitive firm under output price uncertainty. The firm faces additional sources of uncertainty that are aggregated into a background risk. We show that the firm always chooses its optimal debt-equity ratio to...

This paper examines the interplay between the real and financial decisions of the competitive firm `a la Sandmo. Besides output price uncertainty, the firm faces additional sources of risk which are aggregated into an additive background risk. We show that the firm always chooses its optimal...

The importance of capital structure is explored by comparing existing archetypes of financial systems through a new methodological application. Differences in firms’ cost of capital show that capital structure is relevant in R&D and other investment decisions. The conclusions are that 1) there...