IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bap/journl/190305.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Firms Use of Financial Leverage: Evidence from Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Campanella

    (Department of Economics, University of Campania L. Vanvitelli)

  • Luana Serino

    (Department of Economics, University of Campania L. Vanvitelli)

Abstract

In Italy, businesses are widely recognized as a main source of economic growth and for the creation of jobs. This growth is very much dependent on access to external financial resources, but the access to external capital is also a critical issue. Some prior research has suggested that different structural elements of a company and governance characteristics are correlated with their financial leverage. However, to the best of our knowledge, few studies focus on gender governance in Italy. For this reason, our study contributes to advancing gender research in Italy. Our paper seeks to extend the findings of Coleman and Cohn (2000) regarding the association between corporate characteristics (both in terms of structure and governance) and financial leverage. Our sample consists of data collected from 2016 balance sheets and income statements of 578 Italian firms. Our study demonstrates the association between corporate characteristics and financial leverage. In summary, we are left with the following results: the age, size, organizational form, and profitability are correlated with the financial leverage; therefore, the corporate debt level is not correlated with the gender ownership. Additional analysis of differences in riskiness between male- and women-led companies would be desirable but remains an interesting matter for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Campanella & Luana Serino, 2019. "Firms Use of Financial Leverage: Evidence from Italy," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 17, pages 65-78, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bap:journl:190305
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bapress.ca/ref/ref-article/1923-7529-2019-03-65-14.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rebel A. Cole & John D. Wolken, 1995. "Financial services used by small businesses: evidence from the 1993 National Survey of Small Business Finances," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Jul, pages 629-667.
    2. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Agency Problems and Residual Claims," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 327-349, June.
    3. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2013. "The Determinants of Attitudes toward Strategic Default on Mortgages," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1473-1515, August.
    4. Bradley, Michael & Jarrell, Gregg A & Kim, E Han, 1984. "On the Existence of an Optimal Capital Structure: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 857-878, July.
    5. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano, 2010. "The power of the family," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 93-125, June.
    6. Binks, Martin R & Ennew, Christine T, 1996. "Growing Firms and the Credit Constraint," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 17-25, February.
    7. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1995. "Relationship Lending and Lines of Credit in Small Firm Finance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(3), pages 351-381, July.
    8. David G. Blanchflower & Phillip B. Levine & David J. Zimmerman, 2003. "Discrimination in the Small-Business Credit Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 930-943, November.
    9. A?da Kammoun & Imen Triki, 2016. "Credit Scoring Models for a Tunisian Microfinance Institution: Comparison between Artificial Neural Network and Logistic Regression," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 6, pages 61-78, February.
    10. Ken S. Cavalluzzo, 2002. "Competition, Small Business Financing, and Discrimination: Evidence from a New Survey," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 641-680, October.
    11. Ari Hyytinen & Mika Pajarinen, 2005. "External Finance, Firm Growth and the Benefits of Information Disclosure: Evidence from Finland," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 69-93, January.
    12. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    13. Bellucci, Andrea & Borisov, Alexander & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2010. "Does gender matter in bank-firm relationships? Evidence from small business lending," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2968-2984, December.
    14. William Ruland & Ping Zhou, 2005. "Debt, Diversification, and Valuation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 277-291, November.
    15. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    16. Cassar, Gavin, 2004. "The financing of business start-ups," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 261-283, March.
    17. Thomas F. Cooley & Vincenzo Quadrini, 2001. "Financial Markets and Firm Dynamics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1286-1310, December.
    18. Antoniou, Antonios & Guney, Yilmaz & Paudyal, Krishna, 2008. "The Determinants of Capital Structure: Capital Market-Oriented versus Bank-Oriented Institutions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 59-92, March.
    19. Angelini, P. & Di Salvo, R. & Ferri, G., 1998. "Availability and cost of credit for small businesses: Customer relationships and credit cooperatives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 925-954, August.
    20. Susan Coleman & Alicia Robb, 2009. "A comparison of new firm financing by gender: evidence from the Kauffman Firm Survey data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 397-411, December.
    21. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 2006. "Small and medium-size enterprises: Access to finance as a growth constraint," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2931-2943, November.
    22. Berger, Allen N. & Black, Lamont K., 2011. "Bank size, lending technologies, and small business finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 724-735, March.
    23. Osama M. Al-Hares (Correspondnce author) & Kashif Saleem, 2017. "Islamic Banks Financial Performance and Implications of Basel III Standards in the GCC: An Empirical Analysis," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 7, pages 80-97, February.
    24. Eli Schwartz & Roger C. Van Tassel, 1950. "Some Suggested Changes In The Corporate Tax Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 5(4), pages 410-420, December.
    25. Riding, Allan L. & Swift, Catherine S., 1990. "Women business owners and terms of credit: Some empirical findings of the Canadian experience," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 5(5), pages 327-340, September.
    26. Myers, Stewart C., 1984. "Capital structure puzzle," Working papers 1548-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    27. Beck, Thorsten & Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2008. "Financing patterns around the world: Are small firms different?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 467-487, September.
    28. Udell, Gregory F., 2008. "What's in a relationship The case of commercial lending," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 93-103.
    29. Myers, Stewart C, 1984. "The Capital Structure Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 575-592, July.
    30. Angeloni,I. & Buttiglione,L. & Ferri,G. & Gaiotti,E., 1995. "The Credit Channel of Policy Across Heterogeneous Banks:the Case of Italy," Papers 256, Banca Italia - Servizio di Studi.
    31. Huang, Guihai & Song, Frank M., 2005. "The financial and operating performance of China's newly listed H-firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 53-80, January.
    32. Shumway, Tyler, 2001. "Forecasting Bankruptcy More Accurately: A Simple Hazard Model," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(1), pages 101-124, January.
    33. Stewart C. Myers, 1984. "Capital Structure Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 1393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. Barbara Sveva Magnanelli & Elisa Raoli & Agnese Sacchi, 2016. "Key Factors for Success of Social Enterprises in Italy: Analysis of Financial and Operating Performance," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 6, pages 43-60, February.
    35. Susan Marlow & Dean Patton, 2005. "All Credit to Men? Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Gender," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(6), pages 717-735, November.
    36. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    37. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francesco Campanella & Luana Serino & Anna Crisci & Antonello D'Ambra, 2021. "The role of corporate governance in environmental policy disclosure and sustainable development. Generalized estimating equations in longitudinal count data analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 474-484, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martinsson, Gustav, 2009. "Finance and R&D Investments - is there a debt overhang effect on R&D investments?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 174, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    2. Mário Santos & António Moreira & Elisabete Vieira, 2014. "Ownership concentration, contestability, family firms, and capital structure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(4), pages 1063-1107, November.
    3. Joaquim J.S. Ramalho & Jacinto Vidigal da Silva, 2009. "A two-part fractional regression model for the financial leverage decisions of micro, small, medium and large firms," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(5), pages 621-636.
    4. Harrison, Richard & Li, Youwei & Vigne, Samuel A. & Wu, Yuliang, 2022. "Why do small businesses have difficulty in accessing bank financing?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Doris Neuberger & Solvig Räthke-Döppner, 2015. "The role of demographics in small business loan pricing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 411-424, February.
    6. Hubert Tchakoute Tchuigoua, 2015. "Capital Structure of Microfinance Institutions," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 313-340, June.
    7. Temimi, Akram & Zeitun, Rami & Mimouni, Karim, 2016. "How does the tax status of a country impact capital structure? Evidence from the GCC region," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 71-89.
    8. Slavec, Alenka & Prodan, Igor, 2012. "The influence of entrepreneur’s characteristics on small manufacturing firm debt financing," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 17(1), pages 104-130.
    9. Francesco Campanella & Luana Serino, 2019. "Gender and Financial Constraints: An Empirical Investigation in Italy," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(2), pages 109-120, April.
    10. Rana El Bahsh & Ali Alattar & Aziz N. Yusuf, 2018. "Firm, Industry and Country Level Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Jordan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(2), pages 175-190.
    11. Coad, Alex & Segarra, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes, 2013. "Like milk or wine: Does firm performance improve with age?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 173-189.
    12. Antonczyk, Ron Christian & Salzmann, Astrid Juliane, 2014. "Overconfidence and optimism: The effect of national culture on capital structure," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 132-151.
    13. ElBannan, Mona A., 2017. "Stock market liquidity, family ownership, and capital structure choices in an emerging country," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 201-231.
    14. Fryges, Helmut & Kohn, Karsten & Ullrich, Katrin, 2011. "The Interdependence of R&D Activity and Debt Financing of Young Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 6217, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Rizov, Marian, 2008. "Corporate capital structure and how soft budget constraints may affect it," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 22(4), pages 648-684.
    16. Martinez Cillero, Maria & Lawless, Martina & O'Toole, Conor, 2019. "The determinants of SME capital structure across the lifecycle," Papers WP614, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    17. Alves, Paulo & Francisco, Paulo, 2015. "The impact of institutional environment on the capital structure of firms during recent financial crises," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 129-146.
    18. Phuong Dung Thi Nguyen & Thanh Nhan Thi Do & Michael Joseph Dempsey, 2019. "The Determinants of Capital Structure: New Evidence from Listed Companies in Vietnam," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 67(6), pages 1587-1595.
    19. Paulo, Alves, 2018. "Abnormal retained earnings around the world," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 63-74.
    20. Mateev, Miroslav & Poutziouris, Panikkos & Ivanov, Konstantin, 2013. "On the determinants of SME capital structure in Central and Eastern Europe: A dynamic panel analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 28-51.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate structure; Financial leverage; Firms; Gender; Governance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G19 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Other
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bap:journl:190305. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Carlson (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.bapress.ca .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.