This paper proposes a probit model to test capital structure theories. It focuses on leverage increasing capital raisings and tests the various competing theories. It is shown that this approach does not have the spurious ratio problem documented by Barraclough (2007) that plague traditional...

Understanding the dynamics of the leverage ratio is at the heart of the empirical research about firms' capital structure, as they can be very different under alternative theoretical models. The pillars of almost all empirical applications are the maintained assumptions of poolability and...