Leverage and capital utilization
本文发现资本利用率和短期债务均呈顺周期性，且两者在企业和总体层面存在强正相关关系。通过DSGE模型揭示，忽略资本利用率的最优决策会导致对杠杆行为的错误理解。
Our paper documents that capital utilization and short-term debt are procyclical. We show that a strong positive relationship exists both at the aggregate and firm levels, and it persists even when we control the regressions for firm size, profits, growth, and business cycle effects. In addition, our DSGE model shows that in the presence of capital utilization, positive real and financial shocks cause the firm to change its financing of the equity payout policy from earnings to debt, resulting in an increase in short-term debt. Therefore, ignoring the firm's optimal decision on capital utilization may lead to misleading conclusions on how leverage is undertaken.