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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 138 2022

The impact of bank regulation on firms’ capital structure: Evidence from multinationals

Lucas Avezum1; Harry Huizinga2,3; Louis Raes3

1 Banco de Portugal · 2 Center for Economic and Policy Research · 3 Tilburg University

open access

Abstract

This paper examines how the capital structure of non-financial firms is affected by international variation in bank regulation. A concise model yields an estimating equation that relates a firm's capital structure to bank regulatory variables and their interactions with the tax rate reflecting the tax deductibility of interest. We identify an effect of bank regulation on leverage by considering establishments of the same multinational firm located in different countries. Our results indicate that capital regulation stringency and official supervisory power are negatively related to firm leverage, while restrictions on non-lending activities and on financial conglomerates vary positively with firm leverage. High tax rates mitigate these effects.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2022.106459
Volume
138
Pages
106459
Language
en
Sources
crossref openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib

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