IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0331367.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Research on the U-shaped relationship between marketization process and corporate capital structure: Evidence from Chinese listed companies

Author

Listed:
  • Junzhou Xu
  • Ling Zhang

Abstract

This paper explores the U-shaped relationship between marketization and corporate capital structure using panel data from Chinese listed firms (2012–2021). Applying fixed effects and nonlinear regressions, we find that as marketization increases, leverage first declines and then rises, confirming a robust U-shaped pattern. In early reforms, improved institutions reduce debt reliance; in advanced stages, enhanced capital markets facilitate debt access. Additionally, state-owned equity weakens this relationship, while fixed asset proportion strengthens it. The findings enrich capital structure theory under institutional transition and offer policy and strategic insights for emerging markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Junzhou Xu & Ling Zhang, 2025. "Research on the U-shaped relationship between marketization process and corporate capital structure: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(9), pages 1-13, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0331367
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0331367
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0331367
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0331367&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0331367?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0331367. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.