Capital Structure and Market Timing: A Panel Data Evidence

Capital structure has puzzled researchers because there is no definite and one-size-fits-all situation for all firms. Different firms have varying levels of debt capacity, making it difficult to explain firms' choices of different financing methods. Several theories have been proposed (such as the trade-off and pecking-order theories), and it is argued that both provide less powerful predictions and explanations for firm leverage (a measure of capital structure) as compared to the market timing theory. This study aims to contribute to the current debate on the impact of the market timing theory on firm leverage. It is not clear whether firms in developed countries and developing markets also time the market for the issuance of new equity.This study contributes to knowledge regarding the firm behavior in the issuance of new equity. This is a quantitative study based on secondary data from 29 countries (see Table 1 in the Appendix). The firm-level data will be downloaded from DataStream, a database available at James Cook University and Country-level data including annual GDP growth rates and inflation rates will be collected from the World Bank's website. Keywords: Capital Structure, Panel Data Evidence, GDP.