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...

Given their actual revenue and spending, most net equity issuers and an overwhelming majority of net debt issuers would face immediate cash depletion without external financing. Debt issuers tend to have short-lived cash needs while equity issuers often have persistent cash needs. On average,...