The Determinants of Capital Structure of Qatari Listed Companies

This paper aims to investigate whether the capital structure choice of Qatari companies can be explained by factors that have been found by previous studies as dominant determinants of capital structure choice (i.e., company size, company asset structure, company growth, and company profitability). Using panel data regression, this paper extends the research on the determinants of corporate capital structure choice by looking at the issue from the perspective of Qatar "developing country" that has institutional arrangements likely to be quite distinct from those in developed and most other developing countries, especially in terms of its tax policies. The results reveal that among the variables, company size and profitability have a dominant role in explaining the variation in the total debt ratios of Qatari companies. Meanwhile, company size, company assets structure and company profitability have a dominant role in explaining the variation in the long-term debt ratios of Qatari companies. However, only company size has a dominant role in explaining the variation in the short-term debt ratios of Qatari companies.