Capital structure of non-financial companies in EU countries – macroeconomic view

Kristofik Peter () and Medzihorsky Juraj
Additional contact information
Kristofik Peter: Matej Bel University, Národná 12, 974 01 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Medzihorsky Juraj: Matej Bel University, Národná 12, 974 01 Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

WSB Journal of Business and Finance, 2022, vol. 56, issue 1, 8-16

Abstract: This article examines the macroeconomic aspects of capital structure of companies in EU countries in the international context during the period 2011–2020. It aims at evaluating the capital structure of European non-financial companies in general, followed by the application of market timing theory and convergence tendencies in the companies within the EU countries. Our results suggest that the equity ratio of examined companies has grown over the last decade at the expense of credit sources of financing. Although our research could not confirm the possibility of market timing theory application, this was due to the limitations of our analysis caused also by an inappropriate data structure. The general result of the examination of convergence suggests that the historical capital structure has a strong impact on the current structure. Analysis of the capital structure of companies in individual European countries also shows that there are still significant differences between these countries, which have been reduced only partially in the medium term, and thus convergence trends are insignificant.

Keywords: Capital structure; non-financial companies; convergence; market timing theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/wsbjbf-2022-0002 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:wsbjbf:v:56:y:2022:i:1:p:8-16:n:1002

DOI: 10.2478/wsbjbf-2022-0002

Access Statistics for this article

WSB Journal of Business and Finance is currently edited by Jagienka Rześny-Cieplińska

More articles in WSB Journal of Business and Finance from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().