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Do Firms Adjust Toward a Target Leverage Level?

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  • Zhaoxia Xu

Abstract

This paper studies capital structure adjustment mechanisms of firms that experience substantial changes in leverage. Adjustments appear to be asymmetric among firms with large increases and those with large decreases in debt ratios. The different adjustments are not due to differences in leverage targets or industry distributions between the samples. Speeds of adjustment are found to be affected by market timing opportunities. The persistence of equity market timing opportunities slows some firms' rebalancing process.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhaoxia Xu, 2007. "Do Firms Adjust Toward a Target Leverage Level?," Staff Working Papers 07-50, Bank of Canada.
    • Handle: RePEc:bca:bocawp:07-50
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    Cited by:

    1. Andres, Christian & Cumming, Douglas & Karabiber, Timur & Schweizer, Denis, 2014. "Do markets anticipate capital structure decisions? — Feedback effects in equity liquidity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 133-156.
    2. Christopher F. Baum & Mustafa Caglayan & Abdul Rashid, 2017. "Capital structure adjustments: Do macroeconomic and business risks matter?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1463-1502, December.
    3. Natalia Nehrebecka & Aneta Dzik-Walczak, 2018. "The dynamic model of partial adjustment of the capital structure: Meta-analysis and a case of Polish enterprises," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 36(1), pages 55-81.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial markets; International topics;

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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