IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/empeco/v27y2002i1p1-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The dynamic specification of the modified pecking order theory: Its relevance to Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Elena Bontempi

    (Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Strada Maggiore 45, Bologna Italy)

Abstract

This paper proposes an empirical model for the modified pecking order theory (MPO) in which both trade-off (TO) and pecking order (PO) models are nested. The MPO model is specified as an error-correction mechanism and applied to a vast panel data-set. Unlike previously estimated financial models, it avoids a number of problems: the mis-specification of dynamics, the approximation of the target leverage using the historical mean, the constrained estimation of the free cash flow components in a unique parameter. The MPO model is particularly good at explaining "hybrid" systems (neither market-based nor bank-based) such as the Italian one, in which companies are a mixture of two types: TO-type firms with a long-term optimal debt ratio towards which they converge; PO-type firms for whom the short-term availability of internal funds for investment may interfere with the process of adjustment towards the target leverage. Finally, the MPO model enables us to separately test the individual relevance of each of the restricted ("pure") TO and PO models: results confirm their mis-specification and clearly point towards the excellent empirical performance of the MPO model.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Elena Bontempi, 2002. "The dynamic specification of the modified pecking order theory: Its relevance to Italy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 1-22.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:27:y:2002:i:1:p:1-22
    Note: received: May 2000/Final version received: September 2000
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00181/papers/2027001/20270001.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. M. E. Bontempi & R. Golinelli, 2001. "Is financial leverage mean-reverting? Unit root tests and corporate financing models," Working Papers 422, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    2. bag, DINABANDHU, 2013. "Market Leverage Of Real Estate Firms In India: Empirical Study," OSF Preprints 3d7v4, Center for Open Science.
    3. Maria Elena Bontempi & Silvia Giannini & Roberto Golinelli, 2005. "Corporate Tax Reforms and Financial Choices: An Empirical Analysis," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 64(2-3), pages 271-294, November.
    4. Fabio Bacchini & Maria Elena Bontempi & Roberto Golinelli & Cecilia Jona-Lasinio, 2018. "Short- and long-run heterogeneous investment dynamics," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 343-378, March.
    5. Marcin Kedzior & Barbara Grabinska & Konrad Grabinski & Dorota Kedzior, 2020. "Capital Structure Choices in Technology Firms: Empirical Results from Polish Listed Companies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, September.
    6. Seifert, Bruce & Gonenc, Halit, 2008. "The international evidence on the pecking order hypothesis," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 244-260, July.
    7. Bontempi, Maria Elena & Prodi, Giorgio, 2009. "Entry strategies into China: The choice between Joint Ventures and Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprises: An application to the Italian manufacturing sector," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 11-19, January.
    8. Maria Elena Bontempi & Roberto Golinelli, 2012. "The effect of neglecting the slope parameters’ heterogeneity on dynamic models of corporate capital structure," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(11), pages 1733-1751, November.
    9. Bontempi, Maria Elena & Bottazzi, Laura & Golinelli, Roberto, 2020. "A multilevel index of heterogeneous short-term and long-term debt dynamics," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Bag, Dinabandhu, 2014. "Market leverage of real estate firms in India: empirical study," EconStor Conference Papers 272924, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    11. Marco Stampini & Benjamin Davis, 2003. "Discerning Transient from Chronic Poverty in Nicaragua: Measurement with a two period panel data set," Working Papers 03-03, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).
    12. de Haan, Leo & Hinloopen, Jeroen, 2003. "Preference hierarchies for internal finance, bank loans, bond, and share issues: evidence for Dutch firms," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 661-681, December.
    13. SAU, Lino, 2007. "New Pecking Order Financing for Innovative Firms: an Overview," MPRA Paper 3659, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Boyd, John H. & Jalal, Abu M., 2012. "A new measure of financial development: Theory leads measurement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 341-357.
    15. Maria Elena Bontempi, 2016. "Investment--uncertainty relationship: differences between intangible and physical capital," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 240-268, April.
    16. Versmissen, J. & Zietz, J., 2017. "Is there a leverage target for REITs?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 57-69.
    17. M. E. Bontempi & L. Bottazzi & R. Golinelli, 2015. "Dynamic corporate capital structure behavior: empirical assessment in the light of heterogeneity and non stationarity," Working Papers wp988, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    18. Filippo di Pietro & Maria Elena Bontempi & María-José Palacín-Sánchez & Reyes Samaniego-Medina, 2019. "Capital Structure across Italian Regions: The Role of Financial and Economic Differences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-14, August.
    19. Zhao, Jianmei & Katchova, Ani L. & Barry, Peter J., 2004. "Testing The Pecking Order Theory And The Signaling Theory For Farm Businesses," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20215, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    20. Tanveer Ahsan & Man Wang & Muhammad Azeem Qureshi, 2016. "Mean Reverting Financial Leverage and Firm Life Cycle: Theory versus Evidence (Pakistan)," Emerging Economy Studies, International Management Institute, vol. 2(1), pages 19-26, May.
    21. repec:dgr:uvatin:20020072 is not listed on IDEAS

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade-off theory; Pecking-order theory; Free cash-flow hypothesis; Dynamic panel data; Error correction mechanism model.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:27:y:2002:i:1:p:1-22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.