The Determinants of Capital Structure Decisions: New Evidence from Turkish Companies

This study conducts a comparative test of trade-off theory and pecking order theory using 131 publicly traded Turkish companies’ firm-level data between 2008 and 2014. The study also tries to exploit the differences between the capital structure decisions for various degrees of free float rate and foreign paid in capital, and for those that have various market values. According to the empirical results, although pecking order theory seems to better describe the capital structure of the firms, some of the determinants are suitable for trade-off theory. The results of the study also reveal that companies that have a free float rate between %50 and %75 have lower degrees of leverage and the degree of leverage varies for different market values of companies.