Problems in Measuring Capital Structure: Empirical Evidence in Brazil

21 Pages Posted: 20 Sep 2010

See all articles by Marcio Andre Veras Machado

Marcio Andre Veras Machado

Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB)

Otavio Ribeiro de Medeiros

Universidade de Brasília (UnB) - Campus Universitario Darcy Ribeiro

Date Written: September 19, 2010

Abstract

This empiric-analytic paper, aims at verifying whether the firms’ capital structure is sensitive to leverage measures. It also verifies whether most of the leverage variability is due to financial debts. The sample consists of all non-financial companies with data available, positive equity and stocks listed in Bovespa between 1995 and 2007. Accordingly, we sampled on average 133 companies per year. The data required for the analysis were extracted from the Economatica database. In the methodology section we used cross-section linear regression in order to estimate the coefficients and other statistics of interest, following the methodology of Fama and MacBeth (1973). As main results, more than half of the cross-section heterogeneity of the leverage ratio comes from variations on the Non-financial Debts/Total Assets ratio. With respect to the sensibility of the measures used for the leverage, we conclude that profitability is the only variable that is reasonably consistent, in magnitude, sign and significance, with the different measures of leverage.

Keywords: Capital Structure, Leverage, Financial Debt

JEL Classification: G11, G12

Suggested Citation

Machado, Marcio Andre Veras and de Medeiros, Otavio Ribeiro, Problems in Measuring Capital Structure: Empirical Evidence in Brazil (September 19, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1679515 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1679515

Marcio Andre Veras Machado (Contact Author)

Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB) ( email )

Centre for Applied Social Sciences
Graduate School of Management
João Pessoa, Paraiba
Brazil

Otavio Ribeiro De Medeiros

Universidade de Brasília (UnB) - Campus Universitario Darcy Ribeiro

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