Sell-side analysts play an important role in propagating corporate capital structure choices across firms. Using exogenous characteristics of analyst network peers as well as the “friends-of-friends” approach from the network effects literature to identify peer effects, we find that...

Using a random sample of 60% of our cross-sectional data on U.S. stocks from 1964 to 2012, we trained four machine learning algorithms to forecast debt paydown over a one-year horizon. An evaluation of these candidate models on half of the hold-out sample (20% of the original dataset) showed...

One of the elements of company’s evaluation is ratio analysis. It includes computation of bankruptcy risk metrics. There are multiple such measures, of which two seem to be quite universal and commonly applied. These are current ratio and indebtedness ratio. In this study, the accuracy of...

This paper analyzes the relationship between capital structure, corporate taxation and firm age. We adapt a standard model of optimal capital structure choice under corporate taxation, focusing on the financing and investment decisions a young firm is typically faced with. Our model allows to...

In this paper, we directly test the Modigliani-Miller theorem in the lab. Applying a general equilibrium approach and not allowing for arbitrage among firms with different capital structures, we are able to address this issue without making any assumptions about individuals' risk attitudes and...

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of thin-capitalization rules in preventing debt finance by intercompany loans and explores their consequences for corporate decisions. A theoretical discussion emphasizes that limitations of the deduction of interest owed to foreign affiliates would not only...

We analyze the dynamics of banks' regulatory capital ratios. Using monthly data of regulatory capital ratios for a subset of large German banks, we estimate the target level and the adjustment speed of the capital ratio for each bank separately. We find evidence that, first, there exists a...

This paper examines how capital is determined by German banks. We analyse whether the determinants found in the previous empirical literature hold for the special German banking sector with its three characteristic banking groups of savings banks, cooperative banks and other banks. On the basis...

This paper identifies the entrepreneur's exposure to idiosyncratic risk as an important determinant of the capital structure of private companies. The exposure to idiosyncratic risk is approximated by the share of personal net worth invested in one company (SNWI). Exposure to idiosyncratic risk...

This paper studies the influence of the private benefits of control on the capital structure and the growth of private companies. It is argued that companies in which existing owners would lose more control if they expanded, have smaller equity increases, are more highly levered and grow more...