The present paper examines the capital structure adjustment dynamics of listed non-financial corporations in seven East Asian countries during 1994-2002. Compared to firms in the least affected countries, average leverages were much higher among firms in the worst affected countries while the...

Taxes play an important role in determining the capital structure of companies. Consequently,a multinational company would choose its capital structure according to differencesin international taxation. Unlike purely national firms, multinationals can also use intercompanyloans to shift profits...

We test the hypotheses that, in presence of financial constraints, a low leverage policy directed at maintaining financial flexibility can affect company investment. Low leverage is defined according to deviations from target which are estimated via GMS-SYS. Our analysis reveals that, following...

I show that ownership by blockholding and board composition is an important determinant ofcorporate debt maturity structure. Using GMM methodology to control for the potential endogeneityof all regressors, I find a statistically and economically significant negative relation between...

This paper studies conservative debt policies, focusing on firms with no debt (zeroleverage)or with extremely low debt. Examining an unbalanced panel of U.K. firms,we show that debt conservatism is a common, persistent yet puzzling empiricalregularity: nearly 10% of U.K. firms have zero leverage...

Die Gesellschafter von Kapitalgesellschaften können grundsätzlich, abgesehen von gesetzlichvorgeschriebenen Mindestausstattungen an Eigenkapital, 1 frei darüber entscheiden, obsie die Unternehmungen mit Eigen- oder Fremdkapital ausstatten.2 Obwohl bekannt ist,dass Fremdkapital regelmäÿig...

We present an experiment designed to test the Modigliani-Miller theorem. Applyinga general equilibrium approach and not allowing for arbitrage among firmswith different capital structures, we find that, in accordance with the theorem, participantswell recognize changes in the systematic risk of...

We study the eect of the business cycle on optimal capital structure choice and thebenet to leverage. We propose a regime switching model with a state-dependentcash ow process to capture macroeconomic risk in a rm's cash ow. Our modelis parsimonious but still realistic and allows for a wide...