The Capital Structure Decisions of New Firms

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Robb, Alicia M.; Robinson, David T.
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Santa Cruz; Duke University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhs072
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 153
• 关键词: business; MARKETS; WEALTH; credit

摘要

We study capital structure choices that entrepreneurs make in their firms' initial year of operation, using restricted-access data from the Kauffman Firm Survey. Firms in our data rely heavily on external debt sources, such as bank financing, and less extensively on friends-and-family-based funding sources. Many startups receive debt financed through the personal balance sheets of the entrepreneur, effectively resulting in the entrepreneur holding levered equity claims in their startups. This fact is robust to numerous controls, including credit quality. The reliance on external debt underscores the importance of credit markets for the success of nascent business activity.