Determinant Factors of Capital Structure of Firms-An Empirical Analysis Based on Evidence From Chinese Listed Retail Companies

This paper investigates the effectiveness of various factors upon the capital structure decisions of Chinese firms by conducting an empirical analysis of Chinese-listed retail companies.An unbalanced panel dataset was formed with a sample of 110 companies observed for 12 years(2010~2021).Each observation is measured quarterly.Traditional explanatory variables are adopted in the study,including profitability,company size,tangibility of assets,internal financing ability,tax ratio,growth opportunities,and volatility.By employing the Fama-Macbeth approach,the regression results are interpreted to determine the impact of independent variables upon the leverage a company takes on.To solve the reverse causality problem,we include the lag term(last quarter’s data)of the debt-to-equity ratio as control variables.Consistent with previous theoretical and empirical studies,firms’leverage ratio is positively related to size,tangibility,tax ratio,and last quarter’s debt level.Companies’profitability and internal financing ability are negatively correlated with their debt-to-equity ratio.Firms’earning volatility and growth opportunities do not show significant relationship with the debt-to-equity ratio.The study has provided more empirical evidence on capital structure theories regarding emerging financial markets.

A Nonparametric and Semiparametric Analysis on Inequality and Development: Evidence from OECD and Non-OECD Countries

This paper studies the income inequality and economic development relationship by using unbalanced panel data of OECD and non-OECD countries(regions)for the period 1962-2003.The nonparametric estimation results show that income inequality in OECD countries is almost on the backside of the inverted-U relationship,while non-OECD countries are approximately on the foreside,except that the relationship in both country groups shows an upturn at a high level of development.Development has an indirect effect on inequality through control variables,but the modes are different in the two country groups.The model specification tests show that the relationship is not necessarily captured by the conventional quadratic function.The cubic and fourthdegree polynomials,respectively,fit the OECD and non-OECD country groups best.Our finding is robust regardless of whether the specification uses control variables.Development plays a dominant role in mitigating inequality.