This article provides empirical evidence on the zero-leverage phenomenon for a sample of European listed firms for the period 1995-2016. It is shown that there are two types of firms with zero leverage: the financially constrained firms that face obstacles in obtaining external finance, as...

This paper investigates the properties of nonparametric decision tree models in the analysis of financial leverage decisions. This approach presents two appealing features: the relationship between leverage ratios and the explanatory variables is not predetermined but is derived according to...