Most academic insights about corporate capital structure decisions come from models that focus on the trade-off between the tax benefits and financial distress costs of debt financing. But empirical tests of corporate capital structure indicate that actual debt ratios are considerably different...

This paper investigates the determinants of leveraged buyout (LBO)activity by comparing firms that have implemented LBOs to those that have not. The analysis considers sources of gains from LBOs as well as the costs that can arise from the large amount of debt included in their financial...

This paper compares U.S. firms which issued equity between 1976 and 1993 to those which issued debt. with an emphasis on determining the relative importance. Our results suggest that both the static tradeoff and pecking order explanations of capital structure choice theories are useful in...

When firms adjust their capital structures, they tend to move toward a target debt ratio that is consistent with theories based on tradeoffs between the costs and benefits of debt. In contrast to previous empirical work, out tests explicitly account for the fact that firms may face impediments...