This paper studies how accounting treatment of off-balance sheet financing affects the speed of capital structure adjustment. Utilizing a quasi-natural experiment created by Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2016-02 which requires operating lease to be capitalized on the balance sheet, we find that firms adjust to target leverage faster after the announcement of the new standard. We also find that under-levered firms increase the speed of adjustment immediately after the announcement, whereas over-levered firms increase the speed of adjustment after the adoption of the new standard. Overall, our findings shed light on the impact of accounting disclosure on financial policy.

本文研究了表外融资的会计处理如何影响资本结构调整的速度。利用由第 2016-02 号会计准则更新 (ASU) 创建的准自然实验，该实验要求在资产负债表上对经营租赁进行资本化，我们发现公司在新准则公布后更快地调整目标杠杆。我们还发现，杠杆率低的企业在新准则发布后立即加快了调整速度，而杠杆率高的企业在新准则采用后加快了调整速度。总体而言，我们的研究结果揭示了会计披露对财务政策的影响。