IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jaitra/v9y2003i6p371-379.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate capital structure in turbulent times: a case study of the US airline industry

Author

Listed:
  • Guzhva, Vitaly S
  • Pagiavlas, Notis

Abstract

The paper examines airline performances focusing on the capital structure expressed as liabilities/assets ratio for current- and long-term liabilities. It is found that most airlines do not follow the traditional finance management practice of lowering liabilities during lean times and increasing them during economic upturns. Only Southwest Airlines illustrates finance management of this type, with positive effects on its performance. In addition, it is found that among all airlines, levels of current liabilities are properly adjusted for movements of interest rates. However, this practice is not extended to long-terms liabilities, where only Southwest manifested proper adjustments. Finally, return on assets has a negative influence on current liabilities for other airlines, suggesting a risky practice of increasing liabilities when asset profitability is reduced and symmetrically, not taking advantage of market opportunities by increasing liabilities when operations are profitable.

Suggested Citation

  • Guzhva, Vitaly S & Pagiavlas, Notis, 2003. "Corporate capital structure in turbulent times: a case study of the US airline industry," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(6), pages 371-379.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:9:y:2003:i:6:p:371-379
    DOI: 10.1016/S0969-6997(03)00020-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699703000206
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/S0969-6997(03)00020-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:jfinan:v:43:y:1988:i:1:p:1-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Fernandes, Elton & Capobianco, Heloisa Márcia Pires, 2001. "Airline capital structure and returns," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 137-142.
    3. Mikkelson, Wayne H, 1984. "On the Existence of an Optimal Capital Structure: Theory and Evidence: Discussion," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 878-880, July.
    4. Vojislav Maksimovic, 1988. "Capital Structure in Repeated Oligopolies," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(3), pages 389-407, Autumn.
    5. 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.
    6. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1991. "The Theory of Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(1), pages 297-355, March.
    7. Castanias, Richard, 1983. "Bankruptcy Risk and Optimal Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 38(5), pages 1617-1635, December.
    8. Titman, Sheridan, 1984. "The effect of capital structure on a firm's liquidation decision," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 137-151, March.
    9. Marsh, Paul, 1982. "The Choice between Equity and Debt: An Empirical Study," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 37(1), pages 121-144, March.
    10. Feng, Cheng-Min & Wang, Rong-Tsu, 2000. "Performance evaluation for airlines including the consideration of financial ratios," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 133-142.
    11. Opler, Tim C & Titman, Sheridan, 1994. "Financial Distress and Corporate Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(3), pages 1015-1040, July.
    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. Nicolau, Juan Luis & Santa-María, María Jesús, 2012. "Effect of innovation on airlines' operating leverage: A Spanish case study," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 44-46.
    2. Stamolampros, Panagiotis & Korfiatis, Nikolaos, 2019. "Airline service quality and economic factors: An ARDL approach on US airlines," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 24-31.
    3. Kasım Kiracı & Nurhan Aydin, 2018. "Factors that Determine the Capital Structure: An Empirical Study on Low-cost Airlines," Scientific Annals of Economics and Business (continues Analele Stiintifice), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 65(3), pages 227-246, September.
    4. Paul Tae-Woo Lee & Cheng-Wei Lin & Yi-Shih Chung, 2014. "Comparison analysis for subjective and objective weights of financial positions of container shipping companies," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 241-250, May.
    5. Pires, Heloisa Márcia & Fernandes, Elton, 2012. "Malmquist financial efficiency analysis for airlines," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1049-1055.

    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. 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.
    2. Alderson, Michael J. & Betker, Brian L., 1995. "Liquidation costs and capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 45-69, September.
    3. Sjur Westgaard & Amund Eidet & Stein Frydenberg & Thor Christian Grosås, 2008. "Investigating the Capital Structure of UK Real Estate Companies," Journal of Property Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 61-87, August.
    4. Sanjiva Prasad & Christopher J. Green & Victor Murinde, 2005. "Company Financial Structure: A Survey and Implications for Developing Economies," Chapters, in: Christopher J. Green & Colin Kirkpatrick & Victor Murinde (ed.), Finance and Development, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. 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.
    6. Jocelyn Martel, 1996. "Solutions au stress financier : Un survol de la littérature," CIRANO Working Papers 96s-03, CIRANO.
    7. Bayan M Arqawi & William J Bertin & Laurie Prather, 2014. "The impact of product warranties on the capital structure of Australian firms," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(2), pages 207-225, May.
    8. John K. Wald, 1999. "How Firm Characteristics Affect Capital Structure: An International Comparison," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 161-187, June.
    9. Guney, Yilmaz & Li, Ling & Fairchild, Richard, 2011. "The relationship between product market competition and capital structure in Chinese listed firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 41-51, January.
    10. Showalter, Dean, 1999. "Strategic debt: evidence in manufacturing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 319-333, April.
    11. Lord, Richard A. & McIntyre, James Jr., 2003. "Leverage, imports, profitability, exchange rates, and capital investment: a panel data study of the textile and apparel industries 1974-1987," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 287-310.
    12. Bandyopadhyay, Arindam & Barua, Nandita Malini, 2016. "Factors determining capital structure and corporate performance in India: Studying the business cycle effects," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 160-172.
    13. T. Franck & N. Huyghebaert, 2004. "On the Interactions between Capital Structure and Product Markets.A Survey of the Literature," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(4), pages 727-787.
    14. Sanjiva Prasad & Christopher J. Green & Victor Murinde, 2001. "Company Financing, Captial Structure, and Ownership: A Survey, and Implications for Developing Economies," SUERF Studies, SUERF - The European Money and Finance Forum, number 12 edited by Morten Balling, May.
    15. Maria Psillaki & Nikolaos Daskalakis, 2009. "Are the determinants of capital structure country or firm specific?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 319-333, October.
    16. Lyandres, Evgeny, 2010. "Target leverage and the costs of issuing seasoned equity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 39-52, March.
    17. Sultan Sikandar Mirza & Tanveer Ahsan & Raheel Safdar & Ajid Ur Rehman, 2020. "Competition, Debt Maturity, and Adjustment Speed in China: A Dynamic Fractional Estimation Approach," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, May.
    18. Mei Qiu & Bo La, 2010. "Firm Characteristics as Determinants of Capital Structures in Australia," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 277-287.
    19. Rosellon Cifuentes, M.A., 1999. "Essays on financial policy, liquidation values and product markets," Other publications TiSEM 802f644e-3e93-4815-bf33-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. Evaldo Guimarães Barbosa & Cristiana De Castro Moraes, 2003. "Determinants Of The Firm’S Capital Structure - The Case Of The Very Small Enterprises," Finance 0302001, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Oct 2003.

    More about this item

    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:eee:jaitra:v:9:y:2003:i:6:p:371-379. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-air-transport-management/ .

    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.