Purpose
– The interest paid on own capital can benefit companies in the Brazilian capital market as it can be considered a business expense and is, therefore, deductible as a corporate tax. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of interest on equity (IOE) on capital structure decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
– The initial sample consisted of 524 publicly traded companies from different industries in the Brazilian capital market that were listed on Bovespa. Companies in the finance, insurance and funds industries were excluded from the sample due to the unique features of these financial intermediaries. Some companies in the initial sample were excluded due to a lack of published data, inactivity during the sample period, etc. Thus, the paper excluded those companies that did not have valid observations or failed to publish them. The final sample included 370 companies and covered the nine-year period from 1998 through 2006.
Findings
– To this end, the authors identified the main determinants of capital structure and analyzed, through panel data, the relationship of IOE in addition to other determinants of capital structure, such as size, profitability, investment opportunities, risk, sales growth, real interest rate and real exchange rate, in corporate debt. The novel contribution of this study is the inclusion and analysis of the IOE in studies on the determination of capital structure of Brazilian companies. A new capital structure scenario was created when Law No. 9.249/95 required changes in legislation, ceasing the restatement of balance sheets and allowing companies to compensate their stockholders through IOE. Before this change, companies could only benefit from the tax benefits of debt, using debt capital. Now, they can also benefit from the use of equity because, by requiting equity through the IOE, deductions of income tax and social contributions on net income are allowed by tax law because the IOE may be considered a financial expense.
Originality/value
: The authors were not able to find any other publication of a similar study in a review of the extant empirical literature.
The present study aimed to document the effects of financial constraints on the negative relationship between cash flow and external funds, a phenomenon associated with the Pecking Order Theory. This theory suggests that companies subject to more expensive external funds (financially constrained firms) should demonstrate a stronger negative relationship with cash flow than companies subject to minor financial frictions (financially unconstrained firms). The results indicate that the external funds of constrained firms consistently present less negative sensitivity to cash flow compared with those of unconstrained companies. Additionally, the internal funds of constrained companies demonstrate a positive sensitivity to cash flow, whereas those of unconstrained companies do not show any such significant behavior. These results are in accordance with the findings of Almeida and Campello (2010), who suggest the following: first, because of the endogenous nature of investment decisions in constrained companies, the complementary relationship between internal and external funds prevails over the substitutive effects suggested by the Pecking Order Theory; and second, the negative relationship between cash flow and external funds cannot be interpreted as evidence of costly external funds and therefore does not corroborate the Pecking Order Theory.
This study investigates the effect of family firm on corporate performance and financial policy (capital structure, cash holding, and cash dividends). Using a sample of Brazilian firms, the study uses a treatment effect model to address self-selection and endogeneity problems. The results show that family firm has a negative net effect on performance. Family control has an effect on financial policies that indicate a aversive behavior to preserve control. The results indicate less problem of free cash flow and more risk-taking behavior in family-manage companies, suggesting that such aversion behavior is reduced when the family controls and manages the firm. This is the first study that takes into account the effect of family firm behavior through multiple financial policies
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