L’idée centrale de notre analyse sur l’économie française concerne la suprématie des taux d’intérêt et des dépenses publiques comme instruments de politique économique. Avec la forte hausse des taux d’intérêt au début des années 1980, les entreprises non financières ont commencé à demander moins de crédit, tandis que les ménages français, ainsi que d’autres économies en voie de développement en ont demandé davantage. Parallèlement à ces développements, les marchés spéculatifs ont dominé la bourse, le taux de chômage a augmenté, et un processus de libéralisation a suivi. Nous analysons les conséquences de ce processus de financiarisation et certains scénarios possibles en France, tout en utilisant un modèle de type Cowles Commission, qui est à son tour fondé sur la littérature stock-flux. Une attention particulière est donnée aux variables de répartition et fiscales. Les résultats du modèle indiquent que (étant donné que les entreprises françaises sont prises dans une trappe à liquidité) le taux d’intérêt a perdu son pouvoir comme une variable de politique. En revanche, les dépenses publiques ont une puissance expansionniste importante. / The core of our analysis of the French economy concerns the supremacy of interest rates and government spending as policy instruments in this economy. With the strong increase in interest rates at the beginning of the 1980s, non-financial firms started to demand less credit, whereas French households and other developing economies demanded more. Parallel to these developments, bulls became more abundant in stock markets, the unemployment rate soared and a full process of liberalization ensued. We analyze the consequences of this financialization process and some feasible scenarios in France by means of a Cowles Commission-type model that is in turn based on the stock-flow literature. Particular emphasis is given to distributive and fiscalvariables. The model’s results indicate that (given that French firms are caught in a liquidity trap) the interest rate has lost its power as a policy variable. In contrast, public spending has an important expansionary power.

Um assunto recorrente na teoria de finanças tem sido a forma que uma empresa é financiada, ou seja, sua estrutura de capital e se essa afeta o valor da firma, sua rentabilidade e sua política de investimentos. A participação de capital de terceiros na estrutura de capital das empresas é pertinente em função do efeito da alavancagem financeira, que se refere à ação de captar recursos de terceiros a uma determinada taxa e aplicá-los em ativos que oferecem como retorno uma superior a esta. Assim, ao se utilizar de dívidas, uma empresa tem a possibilidade de aumentar a remuneração dos seus proprietários e, consequentemente, seu valor, por captar recursos a uma taxa e aplicá-los em outra possivelmente maior, embora com essa decisão passe a elevar seu risco, justamente pelo fato de assim passar a ter o compromisso com os credores que realizaram o empréstimo. Percebe-se, dessa forma, um potencial relacionamento entre as decisões de financiamento e investimento. Nesse sentido este trabalho teve como objetivo inicial examinar se a alavancagem financeira afeta as decisões de investimento das empresas brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto. Para tanto, foram aplicados modelos de regressão linear múltipla com dados em painel no período de 2001 a 2011. Os resultados encontrados permitem dizer que existe uma forte correlação negativa entre a alavancagem financeira e o investimento nas empresas brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto e que esse relacionamento é ainda mais intenso nas empresas com baixas oportunidades de crescimento. Constatando isso e considerando que diferentes elementos do endividamento podem exercer influências no investimento, um segundo objetivo foi propor um modelo que avalie como os aspectos de maturidade, fonte e custo do endividamento impactam o nível de investimento das empresas brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto. Foi delineado um novo modelo de regressão linear múltipla que apurasse esses aspectos. Os resultados demonstram que o modelo proposto atende a finalidade desejada. Como conclusões destaca-se que o relacionamento negativo entre alavancagem financeira e investimento encontrado neste trabalho em um país emergente se assemelha ao observado em estudos anteriores em economias desenvolvidas. Além disso, conclui-se que os elementos de maturidade (curto e longo prazo), fonte e custo do capital de terceiros são relevantes para a determinação do investimento do conjunto de empresas estudadas. / A recurring theme in finance theory has been how a company is financed, ie, its capital structure and whether this affects the value of the firm, its profitability and its investment policy. The share of debt in the capital structure of companies is relevant duo to the effect of financial leverage, which refers to the action of raising funds from third parties at a certain rate and apply them in assets that offer returns as one exceeds this. Thus, when using debt, a company has the possibility to improve the incomes of their owners and therefore its value, by raising funds at a rate and apply them in another possibly larger, albeit with this decision elevates your risk, precisely because so going to have to compromise with creditors who took the loan. Thus, perceives a potential relationship between investment and financing decisions. In that sense this study initially aimed to examine whether the financial leverage affects investment decisions of non-financial Brazilian public companies. We applied multiple linear regression models with panel data from 2001 to 2011. Our results say that there is a strong negative relationship between leverage and investment in non-financial Brazilian public companies and this relationship is even stronger in firms with low growth opportunities. Noting this and considering different elements of debt can exert influences on investment, a second objective was to propose a model to evaluate how aspects of maturity, source and cost of debt impact the level of investment by non-financial Brazilian public companies. It was designed a new model of multiple linear regression that consider these aspects. The results demonstrate that the proposed model meets the desired purpose. As conclusions highlight that the negative relationship between leverage and investment found in this study in an emerging country resembles that observed in previous studies in developed economies. Furthermore, we conclude that the elements of maturity (short and long term), source and cost of debt are relevant for determining the investment of all firms studied.

Bastante recorrente na área de Finanças Corporativas, o estudo da estrutura de capital das empresas continua despertando o interesse de muitos pesquisadores. No entanto, a maioria das existentes trata da escolha da empresa no que diz respeito ao uso de capital próprio ou de terceiros para financiar suas atividades. Entendendo que esta decisão envolve também a opção sobre que tipo de recurso de terceiro utilizar, o presente estudo analisa a composição do endividamento da empresa em relação à fonte de financiamento: se recursos privados (i.e. dívida bancária) ou públicos (i.e. títulos de dívida). Para tanto, foram estimados modelos estatísticos tendo como variáveis as informações financeiras de empresas brasileiras com ações listadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BOVESPA) e na Sociedade Operadora do Mercado de Ativos (SOMA) e não atuantes no setor de Finanças e Seguros. Os testes foram realizados para duas amostras distintas: uma com o total de empresas e outra apenas com as empresas que efetivamente acessaram o mercado público de dívida corporativa. Foram utilizados dados em painel e três métodos de estimação: pooled, efeitos aleatórios e efeitos fixos. Os resultados apontaram que as empresas, em geral, consideram questões relativas às suas oportunidade de crescimento futuro, disponibilidade de ativos tangíveis, nível de alavancagem e lucratividade são as variáveis relevantes para a tomada de decisão sobre que tipo de dívida utilizar. Mas a partir do momento que passam a ter acesso ao mercado público, o custo da dívida passa a ser importante, assim como o total de ativos imobilizados e nível de endividamento. Tem-se ainda que optam pela dívida privada aquelas empresas com maior potencial de crescimento e mais ativos tangíveis, além de menor lucratividade e menor endividamento. No caso das empresas com dívida pública em seu balanço, quanto menor o custo da dívida privada, maior será sua importância para as mesmas. / A subject extensively studied in the Corporate Finance theme, the capital structure researches continue to motivate annalists around the world. On the other hand, the majority of the existent papers discuss the company?s choice between own capital and third parties resources used to finance its operations. As we understand that such decision also involves the option about which third parties resources to use, the present paper analysis the company?s indebtedness composition related to the financing source: private (i.e. bank debt) or public (i.e. debt bound). For this purpose, it was estimated statistics models using as variables the financial information of the listed companies at São Paulo?s Stock Exchange (BOVESPA) and at Sociedade Operadora do Mercado de Ativos (SOMA) and that not act in the Financial Sector. The tests were done for two samples: one with all the companies and the other only with the companies that effectively used public debt. The data were disposal in panel and three models were estimated: pooled, random effects and fixed effects. The results pointed out that, in general, the companies consider the variables related to future growth opportunities, tangible assets available, indebtedness level and profitability as the major relevant to choice the type of debt related to the financing source. But when the companies access the public debt market, the debt cost becomes important, as the total tangible assets and the indebtedness level. The results also show that the private debt is preferred by the companies with bigger growth opportunities and larger volume of tangible asset, and with lower profitability and indebtedness level. For the companies with public debt on their balance sheet, the lower the private debt cost, the higher its importance to them.

Existing research demonstrates that corporate financing decisions influence the cash-flow rights and control rights of the securities issued by companies differently and that the same corporate capital structures and/or ownership patterns have diverse effects and aims across countries, especially when emerging countries are analysed. The 1research purpose of this investigation is to understand how corporate financing decisions are affected by ownership structure in emerging countries. For this purpose, two game-theoretic models are developed and an empirical test is carried out. The first theoretical model analyses a number of key factors inducing a separation of ownership and control in emerging countries. This model argues that large private benefits of control, extreme risk, low investor protection, inefficient capital markets, and governments sympathetic to incumbent management at the expense of outside investors are factors contributing to create a separation of ownership and control in emerging markets. The second model examines the positive side of network creation through the analysis of the interaction of empathy and economic gains. This model identifies important factors promoting the formation of business groups in emerging countries. The empirical study is a two-fold analysis. Firstly, it tests the effects of well-known determinants of capital structure on debt; secondly, the effects of ownership and control in the financial policies of emerging countries are analysed. To do so, corporate financial data and firm-level data of Mexican publicly traded companies for was gathered. As expected, asset tangibility, company size, profitability and market to book ratio proved to be important firm-specific capital structure determinants, similar to the case of developed countries. Business risk and effective tax rate are key firm-specific capital structure determinants, as emerging markets research has identified. The two factors proposed by this researcher, viz. consolidation and liquidity are significant in the determination of capital structure of the Mexican publicly traded companies. Further, almost two thirds of Mexican publicly traded companies are family controlled. When families are large shareholders, they favour debt financing; whereas when families are the majority controlling shareholder they prefer issue shares, the latter supports the risk management argument proposed by Hagelin et al. (2006) and Céspedes et al. (2010).

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of state ownership in Saudi firms listed in the stock market. The first chapter studies the influence of state ownership on financial constraint on investment. Some scholars believe state ownership has a negative effect on the firm value. However, by using two measures of financial constraint, the investment cash flow sensitivity and the Kaplan and Zingales financial constraints index, the finding indicates that the existent of government ownership decreases financial constraint in firms. Also, the results show that the higher government ownership percentage the less financial constraint in firms. The second chapter studies the influence of specific company factors and the government ownership factor on capital structure. The finding shows that tangibility of assets and size have a positive association with leverage. Leverage is negatively correlated with growth and profitably. Finally, the results suggest that government ownership affects the level of leverage negatively.

Baker and Wurgler (2002) define a new theory of capital structure. In this theory capital structure evolves as the cumulative outcome of past attempts to time the equity market. Baker and Wurgler extend market timing theory to long-term capital structure, but their results do not clearly distinguish between the two versions of market timing: perceived mispricing and adverse selection. The main purpose of this dissertation is to empirically identify the relative importance of these two explanations. First, I retest Baker and Wurgler's theory by using insider trading as an alternative to market-to-book ratio to measure equity market timing. I also formally test the adverse selection model of the equity market timing: first by using post-issuance performance, and then by using three measures of adverse selection. The first two measures use estimates of adverse information costs based on the bid and ask prices, and the third measure is based on the close-to-offer returns. Based on received theory, a dynamic adverse selection model implies that higher adverse information costs lead to higher leverage. On the other hand, a naïve adverse selection model implies that negative inside information leads to lower leverage. The results are consistent with the equity market timing theory of capital structure. The results also indicate that a naïve, as opposed to a dynamic, adverse selection model seems to be the best explanation as to why managers time equity issues.

Finding the suitable capital structure for small and medium size enterprises, SMEs, is vital. A suitable capital structure helps SMEs to stay alive in the competitive market and has a positive effect on the national economy. Wealth maximization is the first objective of the firms, and capital structure proposition shows how a firm plans to finance its projects to meet its first objective. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of the capital structure determinants on the SMEs borrowing behavior. SMEs in this research are defined as the small independent privately held firm with less than 250 employees. In order to reach the purpose of this thesis, I have consulted the relevant theories of capital structure. By the support of the earlier studies, as well as the related theories, I have developed the testable hypotheses to examine the impact of capital structure determinants on the decomposed leverage level. To conduct this thesis, I have used the deductive approach, which is a similar approach suggested by the key reference of this study, Michaels et al (1999).   Size, age, profitability, growth, operating risk, and asset structure are selected as the determinant of capital structure. With the unique set of data gathered from 201 SMEs in Iran over the period of 2006 to 2010, the statistic panel data regression is used to analyze the empirical data. To investigate the borrowing behavior of the SMEs comprehensively, the observed SMEs were picked up from different manufacturing industries in Iran. The result of this research reveals that the impacts of capital structure determinants on SMEs leverage levels are different in terms of both magnitude and direction. The result indicates that profitability has a strong impact on SMEs borrowing decisions. Besides profitability, size and asset structure appear to have an impact on leverage level in compare with other determinants. This thesis finding shed lights on the necessity of using the maturity structure of debt (short-term debt and long-term debt) as dependent variables. Firms are more willing to finance their projects with short term debt, rather than long term debt. Long term debt is costly, and the probability of bankruptcy is higher with long term debt. Although long term debt is riskier for SMEs, but it shows the management confident in the firm’s future since it obliges the firm’s management to make legally binding future payments of interest. However, the empirical result of this study shows that all the determinants have an effect on the level of leverage in SMEs.

Capital structure and companies’ performance are important to corporate finance. Therefore, firms take different strategies to adjust capital structure to get a better firm performance. However still the studies mostly conducted in one country setting or neglect the angle from listed companies across countries. This thesis encompasses 2 developed countries (Germany and Sweden) and a developing country (China) to test the impact from capital structure to firm performance of period 2003-2012 with more than 1200 listed companies in Germany and Sweden and more than 1000 listed companies in China. The result shows capital structure has a significant negative effect to firm performance in China, whereas, significant positive effect in 2 European countries before financial crisis happened in 2008. I also find institutional factors and economic crisis will affect this relationship too.

This study deals with the road freight sector's capital structure and how leases, loans and equity affect the ratios. The study is based on a ten-year period between 2000-2010 in Sweden. Investments in finance is a complex and interesting subject to study, there are many factors that can affect how the company best choose their investments when they have many great business investment the decisions plays a greater role. The aim is to find an optimal capital structure from a financial investment point of view. The purpose will be answered by the following research question: Are there significant differences between leases, loans and equity financed fleet of factors, profitability, tax, turnover, age, and cyclicality. The study will also examine how debt is related to profit margin, DuPont and the tax, all through a regression analysis. Then were plausible economic theories for the study. These theories are the financial growth cycle, the pecking order theory, Trade off theory, and DuPont. In order to answer the purpose and problem definition, data was collected from the database retriever business where we got a sample of 121 companies. The study is based on bigger haulers that have a turnover of more than 10 million SEK and mainly engaged in road transport. The study has concluded that equity is the alternative that is best in general. To minimize the risks of the company is leasing better but generates less profit. Debt financing is better if you want a fast growth.

<p>I study the effect of human capital on firms' leverage decisions in a structural dynamic model. Firms produce using physical capital and labor. They pay a cost per employee they hire, thus investing in human capital. In default a portion of this human capital investment is lost. The loss of human capital constitutes a significant cost of financial distress. Labor intensive firms are more heavily exposed to this cost and respond by using less leverage. Thus the model predicts a decreasing relationship between leverage and labor intensity. Consistent with this prediction, I show in the data that high labor intensity leads to significantly less use of debt. In the model a move from the lowest to the highest decile of labor intensity is accompanied by a drop in leverage of 21 percentage points, very close to the 27 percentage point drop in the data. Overall, I argue that human capital has an important effect on firm leverage and should receive more attention from capital structure researchers.</p><p>Furthermore, I study a two-period contracting problem in which entrepreneurs need financing but have limited commitment. If an entrepreneur chooses to default, he can divert a proportion of the project's output. Entrepreneurs are heterogeneous with respect to their ability to divert output. In particular, I focus on the special case with only two types of entrepreneurs. "Opportunistic'' entrepreneurs can divert output, but "dependable'' entrepreneurs cannot. I find that, if the proportion of dependable entrepreneurs is sufficiently high, it is optimal to write contracts that induce second period default by the opportunistic entrepreneurs. This critical proportion generally decreases with the severity of the agency problem. The model delivers both cross-sectional and time-series predictions about default, investment, and output.</p> / Dissertation