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‘Hot’ Debt Markets and Capital Structure
Author(s) -
Doukas John A.,
Guo Jie Michael,
Zhou Bilei
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
european financial management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.311
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-036X
pISSN - 1354-7798
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-036x.2010.00549.x
Subject(s) - internal debt , monetary economics , debt levels and flows , capital structure , debt , debt to gdp ratio , leverage (statistics) , external debt , debt ratio , recourse debt , economics , weighted average cost of capital , cost of capital , bond market , financial system , business , finance , financial capital , capital formation , market economy , machine learning , computer science , incentive , human capital
This paper examines the motives of debt issuance during hot‐debt market periods and its impact on capital structure over the period 1970–2006. We find that perceived capital market conditions as favourable, an indication of market timing, and adverse selection costs of equity (i.e., information asymmetry) are important frictions that lead certain firms to issue more debt in hot‐ than cold‐debt market periods. Using alternative hot‐debt market issuance measures and controlling for other effects, such as structural shifts in the debt market, industry, book‐to‐market, price‐to‐earnings, size, tax rates, debt market conditions and adjustment costs based on debt credit ratings, we find that firms with high adverse selection costs issue substantially more (less) debt when market conditions are perceived as hot (cold). Moreover, the results indicate that there is a persistent hot‐debt market effect on the capital structure of debt issuers; hot‐debt market issuing firms do not actively rebalance their leverage to stay within an optimal capital structure range.