Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/122070 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 731
Publisher: 
Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance, London
Abstract: 
We test one of the main predictions of the financial flexibility paradigm that expectations about future firm-specific shocks affect the firm's leverage. We extract the expectations of small and large future shocks from the market prices of equity options. We find that expectations for future shocks decrease leverage and are statistically significant even when we control for traditional determinants. Moreover, they have a first-order effect to capital structure decisions affecting more the small and financially constrained firms. Our findings confirm the De Angelo et al. (2011) model predictions and evidence drawn from surveys that managers seek for financial flexibility.
Subjects: 
Capital structure
Financial flexibility
Options
Risk-neutral volatility
Risk-neutral kurtosis
JEL: 
G13
G30
G32
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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