Is There a Size Gap in Corporate Leverage?. A European Comparison / Gibt es eine Kluft im Leverage europäischer Unternehmen?. Ein europäischer Vergleich

Coeurderoy Régis
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Coeurderoy Régis: Assistant professor in Business Policy School of Management, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place de Doyens, 1, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), 2001, vol. 221, issue 5-6, 672-688

Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate corporate debt ratios by size classes in Continental Europe. Evidence is given on a sample of firms in manufacturing industry for ten European countries, all of them being in Euroland apart from Denmark (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain). The descriptive analysis shows a 15 % point size gap in corporate leverage between small and large companies on average. Even after adjusting for structural factors, the size gap remains at 10 %. Yet, an overall assessment should not lead us to overlook national features when comparing small and large companies. In particular, three main groups emerge: in Germanic countries (Austria and Germany), the gap is the largest, mainly because of regulatory specificities. In a second cluster, companies from Denmark, France and Portugal exhibit significant differences in averages across sizes but at a lower extent than in the first group. As regards the other countries, even though the size gap is still the dominant pattern, the situation is less definite and deserves case by case analysis.

Keywords: Corporate structure; corporate size; Europe; SME; Unternehmensstruktur; Unternehmensgröße; Europa; KMU (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:221:y:2001:i:5-6:p:672-688

DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2001-5-612

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