Do Peer Firms Affect Corporate Financial Policy?
研究发现同行企业的融资决策和特征显著影响公司的资本结构，且这种效应比多数已知因素更重要；小企业更受大企业影响，同行效应可将外部因素对杠杆的影响放大70%以上。
ABSTRACT We show that peer firms play an important role in determining corporate capital structures and financial policies. In large part, firms' financing decisions are responses to the financing decisions and, to a lesser extent, the characteristics of peer firms. These peer effects are more important for capital structure determination than most previously identified determinants. Furthermore, smaller, less successful firms are highly sensitive to their larger, more successful peers, but not vice versa. We also quantify the externalities generated by peer effects, which can amplify the impact of changes in exogenous determinants on leverage by over 70%.