This study has as reference the works by Fama and French (2002) accomplished with data of North American companies and by Brito and Silva (2003) accomplished with data of Brazilian companies. This work tested the forecasts of the trade-off and pecking order theories on indebtedness and payout, using the methodology by Fama and McBeth (1973). The results demonstrated that Brazilian companies increased the remuneration goal, however they still distribute a small proportion of the profits, if compared to the American pattern, in spite of the Brazilian legislation to be quite favorable. The results indicate that the payout is negatively related with the investment opportunities and that the dividends don't suffer variation of short period to accommodate the investments, as it defends the theory of the pecking order. The profitability demonstrated to be relevant in the determination of the indebtedness politics, what indicates that the most profitable companies are less indebted confirming the pecking order. Besides, the variable "size" demonstrated to be significant in the indebted politics, corroborating pecking order and trade-off theories.
Structure of capital; Trade-off; Pecking order; Payout; Indebtedness
