The research reported in this doctoral thesis aims to contribute to the corporate finance literature, in the context of capital structure and dividend policy decisions by UK firms, by focusing on three main issues: empirical testing of the pecking order theory of capital structure; simultaneous determination of capital structure and dividend policy; and simultaneous determination of debt, dividend policy and insider ownership. The methodology of the study involves a review of the relevant theoretical and empirical literature, specification of relevant models, data collection, estimation and testing of the models, and interpretation of the empirical results. Hence, the thesis is structured into six chapters, comprising an introduction, four stand-alone papers and a conclusion. The first paper critically reviews the main theory and empirical findings of capital structure and dividend policy; some promising research ideas are identified. The second paper tests the pecking order theory on UK firms; my results suggest a 'new pecking order' of internal funds, equity financing and debt financing as a last resort. The third paper empirically tests the simultaneous effects of capital structure and dividend policy on UK firms using a system equation model. The last empirical paper extends the idea to include the insider ownership into consideration. The main conclusions of the thesis are produced in chapter six together with some promising research ideas for extending the work in this study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:633084 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Ding, Xiaoming |
| Publisher | University of Birmingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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