This study examines how family firm characteristics affect capital structure decisions. In our analysis we disentangle the influence of three distinct components of a family firm: ownership, supervisory and management board activities by the founding family. Thereby, we use a unique panel...

Trotz ihrer herausragenden Bedeutung für die Volkswirtschaft ist über das Finanzierungsverhalten von Familienunternehmen und ihre unternehmerischen Entscheidungen bisher wenig bekannt. Markus Ampenberger analysiert für den deutschen Kapitalmarkt, inwiefern sich börsennotierte...

We examine how production flexibility affects financial leverage. A worldwide sample of energy utilities allows us to apply direct measures for production flexibility based on their power plants. We find that production flexibility increases financial leverage. For identification, we exploit...

We analyze how direct employee voice affects financial leverage. German law mandates that firms' supervisory boards consist of an equal number of employees' and owners' representatives. This requirement, however, applies only to firms with over 2,000 domestic employees. We exploit this...

In this paper, I analyze the motives moving founders and their families to influence the capital structure decision. For this, I complement detailed corporate governance information for Germany with data from other countries. The results for the German bank-based financial system contradict...