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This study empirically investigates the relationship between goodwill assets and capital structure (i.e. debt ratio) of firms and the moderating effect of financial market development on the relationship between goodwill assets and capital structure.

This research applied a quantitative method. The article collects large samples of listed firms from 23 developing and nine developed countries and applied the panel data techniques. This research used firm-level data from the DataStream database for both developed and developing countries. The study uses 4,912 firm-level data from 23 developing countries and 4,303 firm-level data from nine developed countries.

The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between goodwill assets and capital structure in developing countries, but goodwill assets have a significant negative relationship with capital structure in developed countries. Moreover, financial market development positively moderates the relationship between goodwill assets and the capital structure of firms in developing countries. The results inform firm managers that goodwill assets serve as additional collateral to secure debt financing. Moreover, policymakers should formulate a debt market policy that recognizes goodwill assets as additional collateral for the purpose of obtaining debt capital.

The study has several implications. First, goodwill assets are identified as a factor of capital structure in this study. Fixed assets have been identified as one of the drivers of capital structure in previous research, although goodwill assets are seldom included. Second, this article shows that along with demand-side determinants, supply-side determinants also play an important role in terms of the firms' choice about the capital structure. Therefore, firms should take both the demand-side and supply-side factors into consideration when sourcing for external financing (i.e. debt capital).

The study considered goodwill as a component of capital structure. The study analysis includes a large sample of enterprises, including 4,912 big firms from 23 developing countries and 4,303 large firms from nine industrialized or developed countries, which adds to the current capital structure information. Furthermore, a large sample size increases the results' robustness and generalizability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of capital structure using a dataset of firms in Malaysia.

This paper carries out a panel data analysis of 8,270 observations from 827 listed non-financial firms on the Malaysia stock market over the period 2008–2017. To estimate the model and analyse the data collected from the DataStream and World Bank databases, the authors use static panel estimation techniques as well as two-step difference and system dynamic GMM estimator.

The results show that profitability, growth opportunity, tax-shield, liquidity and cash flow volatility have a negative and significant impact on debt measures. However, the effects of collateral, non-debt tax and earnings volatility on measures of debt are positive and significant. In addition, firm size, firm age, inflation rate and interest rate are important determinants of the present value of debt. The results also show a significant inverse U-shaped relationship between the firm's age and its capital structure. In general, the results support the proposition advocated by the pecking order and trade-off theories.

The results of this study necessitate formulation of various policy measures that can counter the effects of debt on firms.

The present study is among the earliest to use both the book and market value measures of capital structure. It also uses three proxies for each: total debt, long-term debt and short-term debt. It incorporates earning volatility and cash flow volatility as new independent variables in the model. These variables have not previously been used together with both book and market value measures of capital structure. The study also examines the non-monotonic relationship between firm's age and capital structure using a quadratic regression method. It applies both static panel techniques and dynamic GMM estimation techniques to analyse the data.

This study investigates the capital structure determinants of the Middle East tourism sector by examining intellectual capital (IC) efficiency and institutional governance along with firm-specific and macroeconomic variables. This research also identifies the determinants of capital structure for tourism companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and non-GCC countries.

Data were collected from 45 listed tourism companies of nine Middle Eastern countries over five years from 2014 to 2018. The data were analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and checked for robustness using the generalised methods of moment (GMM) estimation.

Overall, the results indicate that tourism companies rely more on short-term debt (STD) than long-term debt (LTD), thus decreasing liquidity and increasing financial risk. Furthermore, tourism companies in non-GCC countries have higher IC efficiency compared to those in GCC countries. The aggregate institutional index is much higher for GCC countries compared to non-GCC countries. The OLS estimations suggest IC efficiency and institutional governance index provide inconclusive evidence as a determinant of capital structure proxy. High capital employed efficiency (CEE) is associated with more leverage for tourism firms. Theoretically, the results support pecking order and trade-off theories due to the relationships between firm-specific indicators and debt.

This study closes the gap in the capital structure debate by providing valuable insights into IC efficiency and institutional governance. These two factors serve as capital structure determinants in the Middle East and the GCC and non-GCC regions.

This paper aims to evaluate the impact of international diversification, through the investment abroad activities of the Malaysian multinational corporations (MNCs), on their financial performance.

The paper applies the panel generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique that gives better results.

The empirical findings show that the move to invest abroad has brought a positive impact on Malaysian MNCs’ financial performance. However, in terms of a firm’s risk, the results contradict the general internationalization-risk hypothesis.

The study focuses on the top 100 multinational firms; future researchers may extend the time period and use the entire sample of all the multinational firms.

Foreign investments offer rewarding returns due to cheaper labour and raw materials, competitive edge in terms of technological advancement and larger market opportunities.

The paper contributes to the literature using the panel GMM’s estimation that effectively control for reverse causality and serial correlation problem. The paper also contributes to the international diversification and performance relationship, in a fast-growing Malaysia.

This study analyzes the influence of institutional and macroeconomic factors, in addition to firm-level factors, on the capital structure of listed industrial Latin American (LATAM) companies. The objective is to provide empirical evidence on LATAM firms from (1) the perspective of the traditional trade-off and pecking order theories and (2) from approaches that introduce the impact of institutional and macroeconomic factors into the analysis.

The empirical analysis adopts an econometric methodology using panel data on companies from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru from 2008 to 2018.

The results indicate that, in addition to the firm-level characteristics, the institutional and macroeconomic characteristics of the countries influence the capital structure of LATAM companies.

The study presents some limitations. It is mainly focused on listed companies sourced from only six LATAM countries due to a lack of data. It would be advisable to carry out similar studies with corporate governance factors, family businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The results can serve as a reference for economic agents and professionals, encouraging them to consider the evolution of institutional and macroeconomic variables when making decisions. Academically, our findings verify the validity of conventional theories and the relevance of incorporating external institutional variables into the capital structure framework.

The importance of this research lies in analyzing the capital structure of companies in a little-explored geographic area, LATAM, including institutional and macroeconomic factors and using the new Orbis database.

Este estudio analiza la influencia de los factores institucionales y macroeconómicos, además de los factores a nivel de empresa, en la estructura de capital de las empresas industriales cotizadas latinoamericanas (LATAM). El objetivo es proporcionar evidencia empírica sobre las empresas latinoamericanas desde (1) la perspectiva de las teorías tradicionales trade-off y pecking order, y (2) desde los enfoques que introducen el impacto de los factores institucionales y macroeconómicos en el análisis.

El análisis empírico adopta una metodología econométrica, utilizando datos de panel de empresas de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, México y Perú, de 2008 a 2018.

Los resultados indican que, además de las características a nivel de empresa, las características institucionales y macroeconómicas de los países influyen en la estructura de capital de las empresas latinoamericanas.

El estudio presenta algunas limitaciones, principalmente se centra en empresas cotizadas provenientes de solo seis países de LATAM, debido a la falta de datos. Sería recomendable realizar estudios similares con factores de gobierno corporativo, con empresas familiares y PYMES.

Los resultados pueden servir de referencia para los agentes económicos y profesionales, animándolos a considerar la evolución de las variables institucionales y macroeconómicas a la hora de tomar decisiones. Académicamente, nuestros hallazgos verifican la validez de las teorías convencionales y la relevancia de incorporar variables institucionales externas en el marco de la estructura de capital.

La importancia de esta investigación radica en analizar la estructura de capital de empresas en un área geográfica poco explorada, LATAM, incluyendo factores institucionales y macroeconómicos y utilizando la nueva base de datos Orbis.

This chapter investigates the effect of financial performance and corporate governance on market performance, using evidence from the companies listed on the IDX30 Index of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from 2015 to 2018. The authors use six main independent variables and one dependent variable, controlled by using control variables in the regression analysis. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression methods are used to model the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables. The results show that the current ratio (CR) and Board Size (BS) have a significant negative effect on stock return (SR). In contrast, the quick ratio (QR) and debt to equity ratio (DER) have a significant positive impact on SR. Both the debt to asset ratio (DAR) and Independent Board of Commissioners (BOC) have an insignificant effect on SR. This evidence suggests that the CR, QR, DER, and BS are essential factors affecting SR.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of remittances on human development in developing countries using panel data from 1980 to 2014 and to address the critical question of whether the increasing trend of remittances has any impact on human development in a broad range of developing countries.

Usual panel estimates, such as pooled OLS, fixed or random effects model, possess specification issues such as endogeneity, heterogeneity and measurement errors. In this paper, we, therefore, apply dynamic panel estimates – System generalised method of moment (Sys-GMM) developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Arellano and Bover (1995). This estimator is able to control for the endogeneity of all the explanatory variables, account for unobserved country-specific effects that cannot be done using country dummies due to the dynamic structure of the model (Azman-Saini et al., 2010).

The effect of remittances is statistically significant with positive coefficients in developing countries. The significant coefficient of remittances means that, holding other variables constant, a rise in remittance inflows is associated with improvements in human development. A 10 per cent increase in remittances will lead to an increase of approximately 0.016 per cent in human development. These findings are consistent with Üstubuci and Irdam (2012) and Adenutsi (2010), who found evidence that remittances are positively correlated with human development.

The paper considers implications for policymakers to justify the need for more effective approaches. Policymakers need to consider indicators of human development and to devise public policies that promote income, health and education, to enhance human development.

The question of whether remittances affect human development has rarely been subject to systematic empirical study. Extant research does not resolve the endogeneity problem, whereas the present study provides empirical evidence by utilising dynamic panel estimators such as Sys-GMM to tackle the specification issues of endogeneity, measurement errors and heterogeneity. The present study provides a benchmark for future research on the effect of remittances on human development.

This paper aims to test the significance of unobservable firm-specific effects on a capital structure model.

The paper employs the restricted least squares method to test the significance of unobservable firm-specific effects in a fixed effects model that includes unobservable effects against a pooled ordinary least squares model that excludes unobservable effects.

The empirical findings indicate that models that include unobservable firm-specific effects are correctly specified.

The limitation of this study comes from lack of data to measure unobservable effects such as managerial ability or managerial skills. Future research can develop index measures of managerial ability or managerial skills and borrow from management theory to explain the connection between managerial ability or managerial skills and firms' capital structure.

The findings imply that a capital structure model that excludes firm-specific effects could be mis-specified because such a model does not control for unobservable firm-specific factors such as managerial ability or managerial skills which have significant effects on firms' capital structure decisions.

The findings are important because the paper applies the restricted least squares method to test the significance of unobservable firm-specific effects. This technique has not been applied previously. The paper contributes to capital structure research in the fast growing South Africa.

This study investigates the impact of managerial ability and auditor report readability on the cost of debt and corporate liquidity in Omani-listed industrial companies.

The study uses data from the S&P Capital IQ database and audited annual reports published on Muscat Securities Market. The sample consists of 35 firms (175 firm-year observations) from 2015 to 2019. Managerial ability is measured using the data envelopment analysis proposed by Demerjian et al. (2012a, b). Auditor report readability is measured as a log of the auditor report digital file size proposed by Loughran and McDonald (2014).

This study finds that a company's managerial ability reduces the cost of debt lending support to upper echelons and agency theory. Highly able managers of industrial companies are associated with increased corporate liquidity consistent with the precautionary motive of holding cash. In addition, less-readable auditor reports contribute to higher debt costs and reduce corporate liquidity.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, few studies have explored the influence of managerial ability and auditor reporting readability on firms' financial policy. For industrial-sector firms, this study demonstrates the managerial ability and readability of auditor readability as significant determinants of the cost of debt and corporate liquidity, especially during periods of uncertainty. Thus, the findings can be generalized to other non-financial sector firms in the country and the Middle East.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of board busyness on firm efficiency in the context of directors’ experience, specifically on directors’ experience that moderates the impact of board busyness on firm efficiency. Directors’ experience is examined by exploring both depth (board tenure) and breadth (number of former listed directorship) of experience.

This paper employs data envelopment analysis (DEA) to examine firm efficiency. Then, fixed effect panel regression analysis is applied to test the direct and moderating effect based on a sample of firms in the selected Asia-Pacific countries.

Significant positive evidence for the moderating effect of directors’ experience on the impact of board busyness on firm efficiency is documented.

Findings are essential for managers, country policymakers and potential investors as inputs to improve the current company practices, laws and policies through the notion that directors’ experience does enable the busy board to contribute to improved firm efficiency.

This paper contributes to the debated perspectives on board busyness by providing initial evidence that directors’ experience positively moderates the impact of board busyness on firm efficiency.