IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apfiec/v18y2007i2p87-97.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do country or firm factors explain capital structure? Evidence from SMEs in France and Greece

Author

Listed:
  • Nikolaos Daskalakis
  • Maria Psillaki

Abstract

We investigate the capital structure determinants of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) using a sample of Greek and French firms. We address the following questions: Are the capital structure determinants of SMEs in the two countries driven by similar factors? Are potential differences driven by country-specific or firm-specific factors? Are the size and structure of their financial markets important factors to explain any cross-country differences on SME capital structure? To answer these questions we apply panel data methods to the sample of firms for the period 1998 to 2002. We assess the extent to which the debt to assets ratio of firms depends upon their asset structure, size, profitability and growth rate. The results show that the SMEs in both countries exhibit similarities in their capital structure choices. Asset structure and profitability have a negative relationship with leverage, whereas firm size is positively related to their debt to assets ratio. Growth is statistically significant only for France and is positively related to debt. We attribute these similarities to their institutional characteristics and in particular the commonality of their civil law systems. We find differences in the intensity of the capital structure relationship between the two countries. We provide evidence that these differences are due to firm-specific rather than country factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Nikolaos Daskalakis & Maria Psillaki, 2007. "Do country or firm factors explain capital structure? Evidence from SMEs in France and Greece," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 87-97.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apfiec:v:18:y:2007:i:2:p:87-97
    DOI: 10.1080/09603100601018864
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09603100601018864
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09603100601018864?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. Bartholdy, Jan & Mateus, Cesário, 2006. "Debt and Taxes: Evidence from bank-financed unlisted firms," Finance Research Group Working Papers F-2006-02, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Business Studies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Nils aus dem Moore, 2014. "Taxes and Corporate Financing Decisions – Evidence from the Belgian ACE Reform," Ruhr Economic Papers 0533, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    2. Peter Løchte Jørgensen & Domenico De Giovanni, 2010. "Time Charters with Purchase Options in Shipping: Valuation and Risk Management," Applied Mathematical Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 399-430.
    3. Dominique Dufour & Eric Molay, 2010. "La Structure Financiere Des Pme Françaises : Une Analyse Sectorielle Sur Donnees De Panel," Post-Print hal-00479529, HAL.
    4. Lopes, Patricia Teixeira & Rodrigues, Lucia Lima, 2007. "Accounting for financial instruments: An analysis of the determinants of disclosure in the Portuguese stock exchange," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 25-56.
    5. Pietro Dallari & Nicolas End & Fedor Miryugin & Alexander F. Tieman & Seyed Reza Yousefi, 2020. "Pouring oil on fire: interest deductibility and corporate debt," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(6), pages 1520-1556, December.
    6. repec:zbw:rwirep:0533 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. aus dem Moore, Nils, 2014. "Taxes and Corporate Financing Decisions – Evidence from the Belgian ACE Reform," Ruhr Economic Papers 533, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    8. Dimitris Margaritis & Maria Psillaki, 2007. "Capital Structure and Firm Efficiency," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(9‐10), pages 1447-1469, November.
    9. Dimitris Margaritis & Maria Psillaki, 2007. "Capital Structure and Firm Efficiency," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(9‐10), pages 1447-1469, November.
    10. 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.
    11. Høg, Esben, 2008. "Volatility and realized quadratic variation of differenced returns : A wavelet method approach," Finance Research Group Working Papers F-2008-06, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Business Studies.

    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:taf:apfiec:v:18:y:2007:i:2:p:87-97. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAFE20 .

    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.