What Do We Know about the Capital Structure of Privately Held US Firms? Evidence from the Surveys of Small Business Finance
利用1987至2003年四次全国调查数据，研究了美国私营企业的资本结构决策，发现企业杠杆与年龄、少数股权负相关，与行业杠杆中位数、公司法律形式及银行关系数正相关，为啄序和权衡理论提供了混合支持。
This study examines the capital‐structure decisions of privately held US firms using data from four nationally representative surveys conducted from 1987 to 2003. Book‐value firm leverage, as measured by either the ratio of total loans to total assets or the ratio of total liabilities to total assets, is negatively related to firm age and minority ownership; and is positively related to industry median leverage, the corporate legal form of organization, and to the number of banking relationships. In general, these results provide mixed support for both the Pecking‐Order and Trade‐Off theories of capital structure.