Recent researches have been evidenced that specific country factors, as legal, institutional and economical environments influence the capital structure of the companies. The present study investigates the determinants of capital structure using panel data, for a sample of 388 companies belonging to the seven larger economies of Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru), in the period 2001-2006. Starting from six indicators of leverage ratio, it was evidenced that the firm-specific factors: current liquidity, profitability, market to book value and size, present the most significant results. The theory of pecking order seems to be the one that best explains the obtained results. The results for macroeconomic and institutional factors were not so robust, but for the variable GDP growth, and at a lower degree for proxies about the relevance of the stock market, fiscal load and time of opening of a new business.
Capital structure; Panel data; Latin America; Firm-specific factors; Macroeconomic and institutional factors
