The impact of CEO power on corporate capital structure: New evidence from dynamic panel threshold analysis

This study examines the non-linearity between CEO power and corporate capital structure. Previous studies show that firm leverage responds differently to CEO power changes. In order to capture this non-linear relationship, we employ an innovative dynamic panel threshold model, this novel method allows the estimation of threshold effects with panel data even in case of endogenous regressors. Using a panel-dataset of Chinese SMEs from 2009 to 2013, we find that a CEO power threshold exists in the CEO power-firm leverage association. CEO power has a strong positive and statistically significant determinant of firm leverage, in the “low-CEO power” firms. However, at “high-CEO” regime, the impact is negative but insignificant determinant of leverage. The results are robust to alternative measures of leverage and CEO power, as well as additional explanatory variables.