Macroeconomic and strategic determinants of corporate capital structure. The moderating effect of institutional factors, banking system characteristics and a firm's ownership structure

Abstract

[EN] In this abstract, we present our subject of study, capital structure determinants, and a review of previous related literature, as well as the motivations that lead us to extent and improve on prior research. First of all, we present the main arguments to explore external and internal determinants of firm leverage. Regarding external determinants of corporate capital structure, we conduct an in-depth analysis of how macroeconomic and institutional characteristics, at the country-level, shape capital structure. Specifically, On the one hand, we present empirical evidence about the effects of the expected performance of the economy and country institutional characteristics related with the lending process on corporate debt decisions. On the other hand, we advance previous research about the influence of monetary policy measures and features of the banking system on corporate leverage.