How Stable Are Corporate Capital Structures?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: DeAngelo, Harry; Roll, Richard
• 署名单位: University of Southern California; California Institute of Technology; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1082
• DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12163
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 373-418
• 关键词: credit ratings; decisions; FIRMS; adjustment; finance; debt; cost

摘要

Leverage cross-sections more than a few years apart differ markedly, with similarities evaporating as the time between them lengthens. Many firms have high and low leverage at different times, but few keep debt-to-assets ratios consistently above 0.500. Capital structure stability is the exception, not the rule, occurs primarily at low leverage, and is virtually always temporary, with many firms abandoning low leverage during the post-war boom. Industry-median leverage varies widely over time. Target-leverage models that place little or no weight on maintaining a particular ratio do a good job replicating the substantial instability of the actual leverage cross-section.