Debt and market incompleteness

Abstract

This paper provides a capital structure equilibrium analysis in an environment characterized by market incompleteness and risky debt. Market incompleteness, together with a comparative advantage for corporate borrowing, leads to a Miller (1977)-type capital structure equilibrium wherein each firm within an industry faces an indeterminate debt level. However, at the aggregate-industry level, corporations act as financial intermediaries to generate cross-sectional capital structure patterns across industries, despite the fact that rents associated with financial intermediation services dissipate in equilibrium for any particular firm. Additional implications are drawn for observed cross-sectional and time-series regularities in capital structure. © 1995.