Chapter 1 of this study investigates the link between a firm’s capital structure and their industry competitive behavior. Given the competitive behavior in certain markets, Cournot or Bertrand, we investigate if there are any inborn characteristics of these markets’ competitive behavior that would create an incentive for Cournot firms to have a different strategic debt level than Bertrand firms. Related theories argue that any industry’s competitive behavior, whether it is Bertrand or Cournot would typically consist of a certain type of debt and pursue a certain type of competitive strategy, based on its classification. In this study, we investigate the debt level of a sample of firms classified into either Cournot or Bertrand competition, i.e. explore competitive behavior as a characteristic of firms that tend to be associated with different debt ratios and determine if the competitive market type does in fact lead to a varying debt ratio target. We used two different measures to categorize competition type, the CSM and the SI measure. Our findings indicate that there is no significant difference between differentiated debt levels between Bertrand and Cournot firms. Chapter 2 of the study examines various factors that may affect American Depository Receipts’ trading volume distribution between their home and US markets. These include factors not previously considered in the extant literature. One such factor is the trading motive (hedging or speculative) of investors. Other factors examined include price impact, relative volatility, market to book ratio, as well as a cultural dimension factor: individualism. Controlling for time-specific effects, we find that the relative motive measure of cross-listed firms has a positive relationship on the trading volume distribution. In addition, when looking at a small sample of firms with different motive factors, we find that hedging motive in the home country leads to an increased proportion of trading in the host country relative to the home country, while speculative motive leads to a decrease in the volume share of the host country relative to the home country. A positive and significant relationship is also observed between volatility and the log of trading volume share. The relationship is negative for liquidity and visibility in relation to the trading volume distribution of cross-listed firm’s stocks. Culture difference at home relative to host is found to positively impact trading volume distribution of cross-listed stocks.

In the first chapter, we assess the effect of changes of government ownership on corporate innovation activities. Across 58 non-US countries, treatment firms’ innovation, both in quantity and quality, decrease after a governmental acquisition by using a difference-in-difference regressions and propensity score matching. We show that there is conflict of interest between major shareholders and minor shareholders. The corporate innovation efficiency also decline after the government acquisition. We find that this negative relationship is more severe for the group with higher government ownership of banks, better creditor rights and worse stock market development. For second chapter, if the optimal capital structure exists, an overleveraged firm is expected to move towards the target structure by taking actions that would lower the leverage. Many previous studies, however, show that leverage-decreasing transactions, including offering stocks in exchange of bonds, are meted out with negative market reactions, suggesting deficiencies of the trade-off theory in explaining this phenomenon. In this paper we hypothesize and show that the negative market reactions might be attributed to incorrect rebalancing by poorly-governed firms in the under-leverage domain, who instead of increasing leverage are purposely engaged in leverage-reducing activities.

Cette thèse examine les canaux par lesquels la crise financière mondiale aurait une incidence sur les institutions financières islamiques et les instruments qui peuvent aider à contenir une crise dans un système bancaire dualiste. Notre échantillon couvre 467 banques conventionnelles et 90 banques islamiques dans 16 pays pour la période 2000-2008. Nous estimons la stabilité financière (z-score) dans les banques conventionnelles et les banques islamiques. Le z-score est devenu l’instrument le plus employé par les chercheurs en économie financière (Boyd et Runkle, 1993; Maechler, Mitra et Worrell, 2005; Beck et Laeven, 2006; Laeven et Levine, 2006; Hesse et Čihák, 2007, 2008, 2010; Mercieca, Laeven et Levine, 2009; Beck; Demirgüç-Kunt et Merrouche, 2010). A cette fin, nous utilisons un modèle d'estimation robuste et quantile. Cette thèse compare les causes de l’insolvabilité entre les banques islamiques et les banques conventionnelles dans les pays de la région du Moyen Orient et Afrique du nord (MOAN) et du Sud-est asiatique. À cet effet, nous utilisons différents facteurs microéconomiques, macroéconomiques et également un certain nombre d’autres indicateurs systémiques. / The international financial crisis naturally prompts the question of whether IIFS are robust and resilient or may be swept into crisis by a global wave and if so through what channels. This thesis considers channels through which the world financial crisis would affect IIFS, their features that may help contain it and those that may foster post crisis recovery in a dual banking system. Our sample covers 467 conventional banks and 90 Islamic banks in 16 countries for the period 2000-2008, a range advanced economies and emerging markets. We estimation the financial stability (z-score) in conventional and Islamic banks. The z-score has become a popular measure of bank soundness (Boyd and Runkle, 1993; Maechler, Mitra, and Worrell, 2005; Beck and Laeven, 2006; Laeven and Levine, 2006; Hesse and Čihák, 2007, 2008, 2010; Mercieca, Laeven and Levine, 2009; Beck; Demirgüç-Kunt and Merrouche, 2010). With a robust and a quantile estimation model, this empirical analysis explores causes of insolvency risk in Islamic and conventional banks in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Southeast Asian countries, by controlling for various factors, bank-by-bank data, macroeconomic and other system-wide indicators.

[pt] Tendo em vista a importância das fontes de financiamento das empresas brasileiras inserida num contexto de particularidades e características do mercado brasileiro, e num contexto de juros baixos internacionais, esse trabalho visa a analisar os determinantes da estrutura de capital das empresas de capital aberto listadas na Bovespa (Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo) no Brasil no período de 2004 a 2006. Há de se levar em consideração que o período estudado foi atípico uma vez que o mercado de emissão de ações no Brasil renasceu em 2004 e permaneceu aquecido nos últimos três anos, contrariando a Pecking Order Theory, de que a última alternativa cogitada para o levantamento de fontes seria a emissão de ações. Segundo a teoria, tenta-se evitar ao máximo a entrada de novos acionistas na atividade da empresa. Entretanto, entre 2004 e 2006, 81 empresas recorreram à bolsa e boa parte delas não tinham um alto endividamento e hoje estão com uma dívida líquida baixa. Esse estudo visa também a investigar se existe uma diferença entre esses fatores determinantes quando se discrimina as empresas de maior das de menor porte. O referencial teórico baseia-se nas teorias dos custos de agência, hierarquia de preferência por fontes de financiamento (pecking order theory), na teoria fiscal, teoria da sinalização e na trade-off theory. Dos diversos fatores determinantes propostos na literatura, elegemos alguns fatores quantitativos para analisar empiricamente suas importâncias e validades. Os fatores eleitos foram a influência das variáveis de controle, tamanho da empresa, lucratividade, tranqüilidade dos ativos e oportunidades de crescimento sobre a estrutura de capital das empresas brasileiras. / [en] In view of the importance of the sources of financing of the Brazilian companies, and taking into account the context of particularities and characteristics of the Brazilian market and the context of low international interest rates, this work aims to analyse the determinants of capital structure of Brazilian companies listed in Bovespa (Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo) in the period between 2004 and 2006. One should bear in mind that the period under study was not typical, once the IPOs in Brazil were reborn in 2004 and remained heated in the last three years, contrasting with the Pecking Order Theory, which defends that the last financing alternative would be the issue of shares. According to this theory, the entrance of new shareholders is avoided to the last extent. However, between 2004 and 2006, 81 companies used the stock market for funding and most of them did not have high levels of debt and remain nowadays with low net debt. This study also aims to investigate if there is a difference between the determinants of capital structure, in case larger and smaller companies are discriminated. The theories studied encompass the cost of agency theory, the pecking order theory, the fiscal theory, the signaling theory and the trade-off theory. Out of the many factors determinants of the capital structure proposed, we selected a few of them, mainly quantitative, to analyse empirically its relevance and validity. The factors in question were: the influence of control, company size, profitability, assets tangibility and growth opportunities concerning the Brazilian companies.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka huruvida en kvinnlig VD påverkar företagets kapitalstruktur, samt om det finns ett samband mellan könsfördelningen i styrelsen och dess kapitalstruktur i onoterade bolag med en avgränsning till svenska onoterade bolag. Tidigare forskning kring ämnet har gjorts på noterade företag, varpå det blir intressant att genomföra denna forskning på onoterade bolag. Baserat på tidigare forskning har två hypoteser utformats vilket studien utgår ifrån. Studien utgår från ett positivistiskt perspektiv och tillämpar en kvantitativ metod med en deduktiv ansats. Den empiriska sekundärdata är inhämtad från databasen Retriever där finansiella data från onoterade bolags årsredovisningar samlas in för bokslutsåren 2012 - 2017. Sedan har korrelationsanalyser samt multivariata regressionsanalyser genomförts för att kunna upptäcka eventuella samband mellan studiens beroende variabel, kapitalstruktur, och studiens två oberoende variabler, kvinnlig VD och andel kvinnor i styrelsen. Studiens resultat visar ett svagt samband i de båda regressionerna och därmed förkastas studiens två nollhypoteser. Resultatet visar att det finns ett svagt positivt samband mellan kvinnlig VD och kapitalstruktur, och ett svagt negativt samband mellan andel kvinnor i styrelsen och kapitalstruktur. Dock är dessa samband mycket svaga, varpå det är svårt att säga om de oberoende variablerna har en betydlig påverkan på kapitalstrukturen i praktiken. Studiens resultat som visar ett positivt samband mellan kvinnlig VD och kapitalstruktur samt ett negativt samband mellan andelen kvinnor i styrelsen och kapitalstruktur, bidrar till den rådande forskningen kring kvinnors inverkan på risk, närmare bestämt onoterade företags finansiella risk. Studiens praktiska bidrag är att huruvida företagets VD är kvinna eller ej, samt hur könsfördelningen ser ut i företaget, kan påverka kapitalstrukturen i företaget baserat på män och kvinnors olika risktagande och tankar vid finansiella beslut. Denna studie tillämpar tvärsnittsdata vilket innebär att de data som analyseras är från en och samma tidpunkt vilket gör att vi inte kan undersöka ett kausalt samband, därmed skulle det vara intressant att studera flera fall över tid. Ett annat förslag är att undersöka detta samband utifrån ett kvalitativt perspektiv, det vill säga genom att intervjua verkställande direktörer och styrelsemedlemmar för att möjligen få en djupare insikt i deras tankar kring detta ämne. Ett tredje förslag är att genomföra en liknande undersökning fast på både onoterade och noterade bolag för att sedan göra en jämförelse mellan de olika bolagstyperna. / This study aims to investigate whether a female CEO affects the company’s capital structure, and whether there is a relationship between the gender distribution in the board and its capital structure in unlisted companies, with a delimitation to Swedish unlisted companies. Previous research on the topic has been done on listed companies, and therefore it will be interesting to carry out this research on unlisted companies. Based on the previous research, the study has designed two hypotheses on which the study is based. The study has a positivistic perspective and applies a quantitative method with a deductive approach. The empirical secondary data is obtained from the database Retriever where financial data from unlisted companies' annual reports are collected for the financial years 2012-2017. Then, correlation analyses and multivariate regression analyses have been carried out in order to be able to detect any connection between the study's dependent variable, capital structure, and the study's independent variables, female CEO and proportion of women on the board. The study's results show a weak connection in the two regressions and thus the study's two zero hypotheses are rejected. The results show that there is a weak positive correlation between female CEO and capital structure, and a weak negative correlation between the proportion of women on the board and capital structure. However, these relationships are very weak, and it is difficult to say whether the independent variables have a significant impact on the capital structure in practice. The study's results, which show a positive correlation between the female CEO and the capital structure, as well as a negative correlation between the proportion of women on the board and capital structure, contribute to the prevailing research on women's impact on risk, more specifically unlisted companies' financial risk. The study's practical contribution is that whether the company's CEO is a woman or not, and how the gender distribution looks in the company, can affect the capital structure of the company based on men and women's different risk-taking and thoughts on financial decisions. This study applies cross-sectional data, which means that the data analyzed is from one and the same time, which means that we cannot investigate a causal relationship, thus it would be interesting to study several cases over time. Another proposal is to investigate this connection from a qualitative perspective, ie by interviewing CEOs and board members in order to possibly gain a deeper insight into their thoughts on this subject. A third proposal is to conduct a similar survey on both unlisted and listed companies in order to then make a comparison between the different types of companies.

Throughout the last century there has been an extensve discussion regarding the optimal capital structure.Excessive research has further been conducted to understand the relationbetween the market debt and equity on an aggregated market-level. However, it is observed that the research on thefirm-specific co-movement of stock and bondsis scarce. Since the last financial crisis,the bond market has especiallyseen a rapid growth. The growthstemsfrom the low interest rate climate togetherwithmore restrictive lending policies from banks. Based on this discussion the purpose of this research is to investigate if Swedish corporationsare making the optimal capital structure decision. This based on a potential co-movement of stocks and bonds. To answer the purpose the research question was therefore: What is therelationship between a corporation’s bond returnand stock return?The scientific method that was used in this research is a quantitative method witha deductive process and a positivistic angle. Because the research uses the whole population that is available, this is a censusstudy. In the population companies that have been active on the stock and the bond market sometime during the period from 2008 to 2018. Although, companies that have been delisted during this period have been excluded. From a population of 75 companies and 1972 observations, two regressions were made due to the inconclusive results regarding the dependency of stock return and bond return. No significant result between the returns was found. However, a significant result between marketcapitalizationand the returns togheter with stock standard deviation and the returns was found. Based on the result, the authors could conclude that there seems to be a demand for the issuance of both stocks and bonds. This follows a discussion regarding the possibility of diversification of the securities based on the modern portfolio theory. Further, the authors can conclude that the theories regardin the irrelevance of capital structure are applicable. Finally,the authors can conclude that the stakeholder theory can explain the value creation in a more appropriate fashion in relation to the result. The authors canthereforeconclude that the debt-equity dilemma still is present and further research within the area is required.

No description available.

This paper examines the main drivers of leverage levels in private equity-sponsored leveraged buyouts (LBOs). In order to find out what drives LBO leverage, we analyse deal financing of 71 European LBO deals completed between 2005 and 2015. By conducting univariate t-test and multiple regression analysis, we analyse the predictive power of a number of classical capital structure determinants (i.e. firm-specific factors) on levels of debt financing in LBOs. In addition, the state of the credit market is considered as a potential determinant of LBO leverage. We find that credit market conditions have a significant effect on levels of debt financing in LBOs and suggest that the market timing theory can explain LBO leverage better than classical leverage determinants, i.e. firm specific factors derived from classical capital structure theories. The results also indicate a negative relationship between target firms’ tax rate and LBO leverage. We also find that target firms’ free cash flow prior to buyout has no significant impact on leverage in LBOs, something that contradicts much previous research.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the change in disclosure of operating leases due to the mandated IFRS 16 standard will influence entities cost of debt. Therefore, this paper investigate whether an increase in operating leases has an equal effect on the cost of debt as a corresponding increase in debt. The data consist of observations on 213 Swedish public companies during the time-period 2006-2017, resulting in a total sample of 1549 observations. This paper concludes that operating leases is a complement rather than a substitute to debt and that the increased harmonization effect caused by the alignment of interest bearing liabilities and operating leases, could be beneficial in terms of decreasing entities cost of debt.

O presente estudo objetiva investigar a materialidade do rating de crédito sobre as decisões de estrutura de capital, uma vez que diferentes níveis de rating podem representar melhores ou piores condições para a captação dos recursos externos necessários ao financiamento empresarial. A hipótese rating de crédito-estrutura de capital sugere que, após um rebaixamento no rating, as empresas adotem um perfil mais conservador nas decisões de estrutura de capital visando restabelecer as condições que possibilitem a recuperação do rating anterior. Essa relação foi estudada por meio da análise do impacto das reclassificações do rating sobre o balanceamento da estrutura de capital ao nível-alvo de endividamento de empresas latino americanas não-financeiras com algum rating designado no período 2000- 2014. Os resultados evidenciam que muitos dos preceitos da hipótese teórica também prevalecem para as empresas latinas, principalmente quando avaliados sob a perspectiva das características institucionais da região. / This study investigates credit rating relevance on firm\'s capital structure decision-making once different rating levels may imply better or worse funding conditions. The credit ratingcapital structure hypothesis suggests that firms adopt conservative capital structure decisions after rating downgrades aiming to retrieve necessary conditions to restore a better rating. This relationship was studied by analyzing the impact of credit rating changes on target leverage balance of the capital structure of non-financial Latin American firms with a credit rating designated during the period of 2000-2014. Results show that many of the theoretical assumptions prevail for Latin American firms, especially if evaluated from a perspective of the region institutional characteristics.