European Companies’ financing decisions and the financial crisis of 2007/2008

• Autor(a) principal: Veloso, Viviane Costa
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/20357
• topic: Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

Capital structure decisions are taken on the basis of firm specific characteristics but are also dependent on the environment in which the firm operates. The 2007/2008 financial crisis had major implications for both of those inputs considered in corporates’ financing behaviour. Using a sample of European companies listed in the Eurostoxx 600 index, this research tries to assess the impact of this particular event on firms’ capital structure in order to identify the existence of a theoretical pattern underlying those decisions. Capital structure components are analysed comparing three time ranges representing the pre, during and after crisis periods. The analysis is performed for the overall sample but also considering sector, industry and country classifications expected to determine how the impact of the crisis is felt differently among companies. The main findings suggest that the assumed decrease in bank loan supply did not reflect into a decrease in leverage with a clear preference for debt over equity from the prior to the crisis period. A rebalancing seems to happen afterwards, in line with the observable importance of time invariant variables. Overall, pecking-order seems to explain better the results, mainly in bank-based countries while market timing is also considered, particularly by market-based ones.