Corporate Debt Maturity Choice in Transition Financial Markets

Andreas Stephan, Oleksandr Talavera () and Andriy Tsapin

No 784, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: This paper investigates the determinants of liability maturity choice in transition markets. We formulate a model of firm value maximization that describes managers' choice of optimal debt structure. The theoretical predictions are tested using a unique panel of 4,300 Ukrainian firms during the period 2000-2005. Our estimates confirm the importance of liquidity, signaling, maturity matching, and agency costs for the liability term structure of firms operating in a transition economy. In addition, we find that companies do not react uniformly to determinants of debt maturity. Firms that mainly rely on external funds are sensitive to signaling and they consider the variability of firm value an important determinant of their debt maturity choice. For less constrained companies that rely more on internal funding, asset maturity is an essential determinant of debt structure.

Keywords: Debt maturity; capital structure; transition period; Ukraine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 G30 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 p.
Date: 2008
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn, nep-fmk and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Corporate Debt Maturity Choice in Transition Financial Markets (2008)
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