TY  - JOUR
AU  - Welch,Ivo
TI  - Columbus' Egg: The Real Determinant of Capital Structure
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8782
PY  - 2002
Y2  - February 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8782
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8782.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ivo Welch
Anderson School at UCLA (C519)
110 Westwood Place (951481)
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1482
E-Mail: ivo.welch@anderson.ucla.edu
AB  - This paper shows that managers fail to readjust their capital structure in response to external stock returns.  Thus, the typical firm's capital structure is not caused by attempts to time the market, by attempts to minimize taxes or bankruptcy costs, or by any other attempts at firm-value maximization. Instead, capital structure is almost entirely determined by lagged stock returns (which, when applied to ancient equity values, predict current equity value and with it debt equity ratios). Consequently, one should conclude that capital structure is determined primarily by external stock market influences, and not by internal corporate optimizing decisions.
ER  -