Using a large sample of firms from 43 markets, we find significant time-series variation in firms’ leverage ratios around the world. Industry median leverage ratios and aggregate leverage ratios also change substantially over time. Relative to actual leverage ratios, target leverage ratios estimated from the time-varying target models are much more stable. Variance decomposition shows that leverage instability is largely driven by deviations from the target. A number of firm and market characteristics are related to capital structure instability. We also find evidence consistent with firms using financing activities to adjust their leverage ratios towards the target in global markets.

通过使用来自43个市场的大量公司样本，我们发现全球公司的杠杆比率在时间序列上存在显着差异。行业中值杠杆率和总杠杆率也随时间而显着变化。相对于实际杠杆比率，随时间变化的目标模型估算的目标杠杆比率要稳定得多。方差分解表明，杠杆的不稳定性在很大程度上是由与目标的偏离引起的。许多公司和市场特征与资本结构的不稳定性有关。我们还发现与使用融资活动来将其杠杆比率调整为全球市场目标的公司相符的证据。