Capital Structure Analysis And Empirical Study

Since the 1950s', with the development of capital market of western countries, capital structure theory has become more and more mature and capital structure management is one of the vital parts of financial decisions. On the basis of analyzing western capital structure either in theory or in methodology research and present situation for capital structure of Chinese-listed-companies (CLC), this thesis is to find out contributing factors that influence the formation of Chinese-special capital structure, help CLC to optimize capital structure and avoid financial dilemma. Finally some suggestions about further improvements of capital structure management in CLC will be given.The whole thesis is divided into seven chapters.Chapter One is the preface. First of all, the chapter discusses several concepts like capital structure, optimized capital structure, capital cost, financing leverage and other relevant concepts. It also confines the research range. It focuses on non-financial CLC and ignore the influence of bonds on companies' capital structure. Secondly, it analyzes present situation of Chinese capital structure and find four marked features: 1 Debt-Asset ratio is relatively low; 2 Strongly stock-ownership-financing preference; 3 Stock-ownership structure is too complicated and the proportion of state-owned stock is too large. 4 Financing order is not reasonable. Thirdly, the chapter describes the characteristics of western capital structure and makes a comparative analysis on the foundation of capital structure formation between China and western developed countries. Therefore, it draws a conclusion that capital structure of CLC don't totally follow the steps of capital structure development of western countries, and its unique economic and political circumstance shape thecorresponding capital structure. So the researches in Chinese capital structure are necessary and have theoretical and practical significance.In Chapter Two, several representative western capital structure theories are comparatively analyzed and commented on, which is the theoretical foundation of this thesis. There are four problems when we are applying these theories to CLC. They are: 1. Theoretical research angle; 2. Theoretical development situation; 3. Theory hypothesis; 4. The parameters used in theory. But the precious illumination from these theories cannot be denied.Chapter Three is the quantitative researching foundation of this thesis. In it, practical analyses from 1970s' to present both by Chinese researchers and by western ones are discussed in a comparative way. Enlightened by these practical researches, the author develops her own analytical frame, in which there are some quotations and innovations. The innovations are based on two discoveries: 1 The conclusion that the capital structure of ST or PT listed companies is apparently different from normal ones is used widely as a theoretical premise in many researches. But the author considers that it lacks of quantitative tests. 2 Because of too many contributing factors which influence capital structure of CLC, optimizing capital structure is hard to obtain, accordingly, many researches aim at optimized capital structure become a bubble and lose their practical significance. So the author conducts Zou-Shi test and decides to find the worst capital structure. Through avoiding such capital structure, companies can arrive at less optimized capital structure, which is more practical and easier to achieve.On the basis of above analyses, Chapter Four summarizes 11 aspects that may influence capital structure of CLC, which become the theoreticalbasis of the index selection in Chapter Six.Chapter Five describes analytical frame of this thesis from the angle of methodology. Four aspects of the analysis are:1. Sample in the total CLC, both in normal CLC and in SP or PT CLC, and test the main contributing factors that influence capital structure of CLC. 2. Analyze two types of CLC separately and test quantitatively that whether ST o...