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...

We study the effect of the business cycle on optimal capital structure choice and the benefit to leverage. We propose a regime switching model with a state-dependent cash flow process to capture macroeconomic risk in a firm's cash flow. Our model is parsimonious but still realistic and allows...

Purpose – To investigate relative differences in debt financing between international and domestic industrial firms operating in Turkey, Germany and the UK. Design/methodology/approach – Analysis depends on multivariate regression analysis, while controlling the effects of firm-specific...

We present the puzzling evidence that, from 1962 to 2009, an average 10.2% of large public nonfinancial US firms have zero debt and almost 22% have less than 5% book leverage ratio. Zero-leverage behavior is a persistent phenomenon. Dividend-paying zero-leverage firms pay substantially higher...

This paper develops a framework for devising an adequate financial architecture for the so-called "new economy" firms, suggesting that these firms need a distinct and different optimal capital structure and corporate control or corporate governance mechanisms. It is shown that an adequate...

Purpose –This study sets out to focus on the identification of determinants of real estate limited partnership (REIT) capital structure from a market perspective. Design/methodology/approach -This study uses ordinary least squares regression to test whether REIT capital structure is impacted...

This paper examines the effect of foreign acquisitions on the capital structure of corporations. A multivariate analysis using debt flow data examines the relation between additional financing through long-term debt after foreign acquisitions and the characteristics of these acquisitions, the...

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...