Corporate Finance : capital structure and hybrid capital

?is paper is the rst comprehensive documentation of the capital structure of the population of Norwegian private and public companies. By the use of a well speci ed dataset with , rms and , rm-years for the years -, I manage both to analyze overall capital structure as well as relevant and still large sub-samples. ?e subsamples re ect size and listed/unlisted rms, as well as groups expected to di er in terms of nancial constraints, e.g., dividend payers or rms that have received formal noti cations from their auditors. I also include a limited analysis of capital structure including capitalized rental agreements and nd signi cantly increased adjusted leverage ratios. Leverage ratios are analyzed in a dynamic panel regression using the System GMM-method proposed by Blundell and Bond (). ?e results con rm known US ndings regarding ’partial adjustment’ of leverage and shows in addition interesting variations by subgroups. ?e analysis also highlights the sensitivity of the results to the choice of regression method. ?e main contributions of the paper are to document a national population of rms, show drivers of changes in leverage, illustrate the e ects of including capitalized rents in overall leverage and exemplify the importance of panel regression methodology. I want to thank Trond Doskeland, B.Espen Eckbo, Gorm Gronnevet, Hans K. Hvide, ?ore Johnsen and Jarle Moen. Personal responsibility for all mistakes accepted.