Testing Theories of Capital Structure and Estimating the Speed of Adjustment
研究美国上市公司外部融资决策的时间序列模式，发现股权融资成本低时企业更多用外部股权弥补融资缺口，并引入新计量方法估计杠杆调整速度，发现账面杠杆半衰期为3.7年。
Abstract This paper examines time-series patterns of external financing decisions and shows that publicly traded U.S. firms fund a much larger proportion of their financing deficit with external equity when the cost of equity capital is low. The historical values of the cost of equity capital have long-lasting effects on firms’ capital structures through their influence on firms’ historical financing decisions. We also introduce a new econometric technique to deal with biases in estimates of the speed of adjustment toward target leverage. We find that firms adjust toward target leverage at a moderate speed, with a half-life of 3.7 years for book leverage, even after controlling for the traditional determinants of capital structure and firm fixed effects.