The impact of microeconomic and macroeconomic factors on financial structure: Evidence from United States

Abstract

This paper explores the microeconomic and macroeconomic drivers of financial structure, through a sample of 30 technology companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, over the period 2005-2018. The financial structure was assessed via long-term debt rate, short-term debt rate and total debt rate, whereas the size of the company, tangibility of assets, growth opportunity, effective tax rate and financial return were selected as microeconomic factors, alongside macroeconomic indicators concerning interest rate, inflation rate and gross domestic product per capita. The empirical outcomes by means of panel data regression models provided support for a positive influence on financial structure of natural logarithm of total assets, financial return, effective tax rate, interest rate and gross domestic product per capita. However, tangibility of assets showed mixed associations with financial structure, while sales variation and inflation rate proved to lack any statistical significance.