Back to the beginning: Persistence and the cross-section of corporate capital structure

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lemmon, Michael L.; Roberts, Michael R.; Zender, Jaime F.
• 署名单位: Utah System of Higher Education; University of Utah; University of Pennsylvania; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1082
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.2008.01369.x
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 1575-1608
• 关键词: Pecking order; FIRMS; debt; models; CHOICE; STOCK; panel

摘要

We find that the majority of variation in leverage ratios is driven by an unobserved time-invariant effect that generates surprisingly stable capital structures: High (low) levered firms tend to remain as such for over two decades. This feature of leverage is largely unexplained by previously identified determinants, is robust to firm exit, and is present prior to the IPO, suggesting that variation in capital structures is primarily determined by factors that remain stable for long periods of time. We then show that these results have important implications for empirical analysis attempting to understand capital structure heterogeneity.