Disentangling Sentiment from Cyclicality in Firm Capital Structure
研究了投资者和管理者情绪如何影响企业资本结构，发现积极情绪时期企业杠杆率降低，杠杆呈现逆周期性，支持市场择时行为而非传统权衡理论。
This study examines the relationship between capital structure choices and investor and managerial sentiment, finding that periods of positive sentiment are associated with reduced leverage within firms. We focus on the cyclicality of leverage using non‐orthogonalized sentiment indices and find a strong negative relationship. Leverage, therefore, appears countercyclical, implying that the decision to take on debt is a consequence of either Admati et al .'s (2018) ratchet effect or a managerial attempt to time the market. Our findings lead us to question some fundamental capital structure theories, namely, trade‐off (Kraus and Litzenberger, 1973), and Hackbarth's (2008) managerial traits theory. Instead, we favour the idea that leverage is a consequence of countercyclical market timing behaviour.