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Article: The Debt Maturity Structure of Small Firms.
- Article from:
- Financial Management
- Article date:
- March 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Financial Management Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Heather M. Hulburt [*]
Small firms differ from large firms in taxability, ownership, flexibility, industry, economies of scale, financial market access, and level of information asymmetry. We investigate the determinants of small firms' choice of the maturity structure of debt. We find that small firms' maturity of assets, capital structure, and probability of default are statistically and economically important in the choice of debt maturity. We find little evidence that small firms' growth options, level of asymmetric information, and tax status affect debt maturity choice.
Although many studies examine the choice between debt and equity in financing ...