Existing theories of a firm’s optimal capital structure seem to fail in explaining why many healthy and profitable firms rely heavily on equity financing, even though benefits associated with debt (like tax shields) appear to be high and the bankruptcy risk low. This holds in particular for...

It has been argued that the Chinese state sector is advancing at the cost of the private sector. Focusing on publicly listed firms which are divided into state- and private-controlled firms, we investigate preferential access to debt and effects on firm performance. Focusing on the large...

This paper examines time-series patterns of external financing decisions and shows that publicly traded U.S, firms fund a much larger proportion of their financing deficit with external equity when the cost of equity capital is low. The historical values of the cost of equity capital have...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to instruct upper level business students on the intricacies of the debt-equity choice with the emphasis on showing the interrelation of this choice with the plowback-payout choice. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is designed around a...

This paper examines the relationships between the changes in the firm's capital structure and their effects on the firm's market value for three different levels of systematic risk. The underlying assumption of signalling is that when a firm changes its capital structure, its market value might...