Financing Decisions: Who Issues Stock?

Financing decisions seem to violate the central predictions of the pecking order model about how often and under what circumstances firms issue equity. Specifically, most firms issue or retire equity each year, the issues are on average large, and they are not typically done by firms under duress. We estimate that during 1973-2002 the year-by-year equity decisions of more than half of our sample firms violate the pecking order. And contradictions are more common among larger firms.

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