The determinants of corporate cost of debt during a financial crisis
利用美国上市公司面板数据，研究金融危机期间企业规模、年龄、盈利能力、杠杆率、流动性和企业价值对债务成本在不同分位数上的影响，发现杠杆率在低分位数正向影响债务成本，高分位数负向影响，盈利能力在高分位数正向影响，与啄序理论预期相悖。
Panel data from publicly listed US industrial firms is used to investigate how firm- specific cost of debt (COD) determinants impact COD at different quantiles during a financial crisis. Six COD determinants: firm size, firm age, profitability, leverage, liquidity, and firm value, and advanced estimators: robust and bootstrapped fixed effects, bias-corrected least square dummy variable (LSDVC), and quantile regression, are employed within the context of pecking-order theory. The results show that firm size and leverage negatively impact COD, while liquidity positively impacts it when COD is high (90% quantile). The degree of profitability only confirms the pecking order theory when COD is extremely low (10% quantile) and contrasts with the theory for the 25% and above COD quantiles during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). These findings confirm that the practicalities of access to finance matter during a financial crisis for corporate financing decisions. • US industrial firms' cost of debt (COD) determinants are studied in the context of pecking order theory. • Robust and bootstrapped fixed effects, LSDVC, and quantile regressions are employed. • Leverage positively affects the COD in the low quantiles and negatively in others. • Profitability and liquidity positively affect COD in the higher quantiles. • The finding for profitability mostly contrasts with expected pecking order theory.