Corporate Governance and Capital Structure: Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to investigate whether internal attributes of corporate governance such as board size, board composition, CEO duality, board meetings, blockholders' ownership, managerial ownership, CEO remuneration, and directors' remuneration affect the capital structure (i.e., total debt ratio, long-term debt ratio, and short-term debt ratio) choice of non-financial firms listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited during 2009–2014. Second, whether theories relevant to corporate governance developed in western settings provide support to understand the financing behavior of firms in a developing country, Pakistan. In sum, results indicate that corporate governance measures have some role in shaping the financing behavior of firms. It is worth mention that each company is bound to explicitly confirm in annual report regarding compliance with code of corporate governance, but results indicate a different story. For instance, descriptive statistics indicate that five individual larger shareholders on average hold more than 68% shares.

Citation

Sheikh, N.A. (2019), "Corporate Governance and Capital Structure: Evidence from Pakistan", Azid, T., Alnodel, A.A. and Qureshi, M.A. (Ed.) Research in Corporate and Shari’ah Governance in the Muslim World: Theory and Practice, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 341-353. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-007-420191035