This study examines the influence of labour market conditions on corporate capital structure in a sample of 2892 firms from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. After considering the effect of unemployment and inflation, we analyse the impact of two market imperfections: employees’ rights and downward wage rigidity. Results indicate that financial leverage responds to changes in unemployment and inflation. We also find that the influence of employees’ rights is non-linear, whereas the negative effect of downward wage rigidity is moderated by firms’ market power. Taken together, our results show that corporate financial decisions are conditioned not only by firm-level issues but also by a country’s labour market.

本研究以来自法国、德国、意大利、西班牙和英国的 2892 家公司为样本，研究了劳动力市场条件对公司资本结构的影响。在考虑失业和通货膨胀的影响后，我们分析了两种市场不完善的影响：雇员权利和向下的工资刚性。结果表明，财务杠杆对失业和通货膨胀的变化做出反应。我们还发现员工权利的影响是非线性的，而工资刚性下降的负面影响被企业的市场力量所缓和。综上所述，我们的结果表明，公司财务决策不仅受公司层面问题的制约，还受国家劳动力市场的制约。