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An empirical investigation of the determinants of corporate capital structure decisions

In recent years, several new theories have been developedrelating the value of the firm to its capital structure, or explainingwhy firms issue debt securities. However, empirical testing ofthe varying predictions of these theories has not kept pace. Moreover,most investigations have been done on regulated utilities because ofalleged risk homogeneity. The results are ambiguous and cannot begeneralized due to regulatory treatment of taxes.The present investigation is carried out on a broad crosssectionof industrial firms and takes explicit account of businessrisk variations as well as dealing with other econometric problemsignored in previous studies. The results are consistent with Miller's(1977) hypothesis that the value of the firm is independent of leveragein the absence of bankruptcy costs. However, the results are alsoconsistent with the existence of significant leverage-related costswhich vary directly with business risk. / L'etude de l1incidence du levier financier d'une firme sur sa valeurde marche ainsi que des. differentes raisons pour lesquelles une firmeferait appel au marche des obligations pour assurer son financement asuscite ces dernieres annees le developpement de nouvelles approchestheoriques du probleme. Le travail de verification empirique, toutefois,n'a guere suivi et, en particulier, seules les compagnies etroitementsoumises au controle gouvernemental ont fait l'objet d'une etudeapprofondie, du fait sans doute de leur appartenance presumee a lameme classe de risque et ce, en depit du traitement fiscal particulierdont beneficient ces compagnies. De ce fait, les resultats empiriquesactuellement disponibles ne sont pas depourvus d'ambiguite et ne sauraientetre generalises.[...]

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.120984
Date January 1984
CreatorsPatterson, Cleveland S.
ContributorsMintzberg, Henry (Supervisor)
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Business Administration. (Faculty of Management.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 000089184, Theses scanned by McGill Library.

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