Shareholder litigation rights and capital structure decisions

Nam H. Nguyen, Hieu V. Phan and Eunju Lee

Journal of Corporate Finance, 2020, vol. 62, issue C

Abstract: We exploit the staggered adoption of the universal demand (UD) laws across U.S. states, which impedes shareholder rights to initiate derivative lawsuits, as a quasi-natural experiment to examine the relation between shareholder litigation rights and firm capital structures. We find that weaker shareholder litigation rights due to the UD laws adoption lead to higher financial leverage, which enhances firm value. Furthermore, the positive relation between the UD laws adoption and financial leverage is more pronounced for firms exposed to higher shareholder litigation risk ex ante or financially constrained firms. Our evidence is consistent with lower shareholder litigation threats motivating firms to increase financial leverage.

Keywords: Universal demand law; Derivative lawsuits; Shareholder litigation; Financial leverage; Capital structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G30 G32 G38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:corfin:v:62:y:2020:i:c:s0929119920300456

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2020.101601

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