TY  - JOUR
AU  - Desai,Mihir A.
AU  - Foley,C. Fritz
AU  - Hines,James R.,Jr.
TI  - Capital Structure with Risky Foreign Investment
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12276
PY  - 2006
Y2  - June 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12276
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12276.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Mihir A. Desai
Graduate School of Business Administration
Harvard University
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-6693
Fax: 617/496-6592
E-Mail: mdesai@hbs.edu

C. Fritz Foley
Graduate School of Business Administration
Harvard University
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/495-6375
Fax: 617/496-8443
E-Mail: ffoley@hbs.edu

James R. Hines
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
343 Lorch Hall
611 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1220
Tel: 734/764-2320
Fax: 734/764-2769
E-Mail: jrhines@umich.edu
AB  - American multinational firms respond to politically risky environments by adjusting their capital structures abroad and at home. Foreign subsidiaries located in politically risky countries have significantly more debt than do other foreign affiliates of the same parent companies. American firms further limit their equity exposures in politically risky countries by sharing ownership with local partners and by serving foreign markets with exports rather than local production. The residual political risk borne by parent companies leads them to use less domestic leverage, resulting in lower firm-wide leverage. Multinational firms with above-average exposures to politically risky countries have 8.4 percent less domestic leverage than do other firms. These findings illustrate the impact of risk exposures on capital structure.
ER  -