Publicação
Financial debt determinants of United Kingdom's crude petroleum extraction companies: an empirical investigation
| Resumo: | The main purposes of this research are to test the importance of capital structure determinants (firm size, profitability, liquidity, non-debt tax shields and asset specificity) and to demonstrate their contribution when applied to leverage measures (total debt, short-term debt and long-term debt). An empirical examination of financial data related to United Kingdom's crude petroleum extraction companies during the five years period 2003-2007 was made, modelling the debt ratios as functions of company specific attributes hypothesized by capital structure theories. Using linear regression models, the results achieved demonstrate that: (i) the profitability extensively influence the capital structure of U.K.'s crude petroleum extraction firms; (ii) the results on firm size variable confirmed to be relevant for the leverage explanation (computed as total debt and long-term debt) and indicate that the larger the firm the higher the leverage it is able to achieve and maintain; (iii) the non-debt tax shields results have proven to be aligned with the ones frequently reached since the coefficient obtained is negative for total debt and short-term debt; however, they are only significant for the short-term debt model; and (iv) liquidity and asset specificity are not significant for the measures of leverage explanation. |
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| Autores principais: | Barreto, Joana Correia |
| Assunto: | capital structure financial debt determinants leverage measures asset specificity crude petroleum extraction firms estrutura de capital factores determinantes do endividamento especificidade dos activos empresas de extracção de petróleo bruto |
| Ano: | 2010 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso restrito |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | The main purposes of this research are to test the importance of capital structure determinants (firm size, profitability, liquidity, non-debt tax shields and asset specificity) and to demonstrate their contribution when applied to leverage measures (total debt, short-term debt and long-term debt). An empirical examination of financial data related to United Kingdom's crude petroleum extraction companies during the five years period 2003-2007 was made, modelling the debt ratios as functions of company specific attributes hypothesized by capital structure theories. Using linear regression models, the results achieved demonstrate that: (i) the profitability extensively influence the capital structure of U.K.'s crude petroleum extraction firms; (ii) the results on firm size variable confirmed to be relevant for the leverage explanation (computed as total debt and long-term debt) and indicate that the larger the firm the higher the leverage it is able to achieve and maintain; (iii) the non-debt tax shields results have proven to be aligned with the ones frequently reached since the coefficient obtained is negative for total debt and short-term debt; however, they are only significant for the short-term debt model; and (iv) liquidity and asset specificity are not significant for the measures of leverage explanation. |
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