Adverse Selection, Debt Capacity And Corporate Growth: An Industry Life Cycle Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the industry impact on financing corporate growth. According to underinvestment and overinvestment problems, ?rms are more likely to have less debt capacity in their growth stage of life cycle. However, it is known that new economy firms have higher levels of growth rate, return and risk, and particularly undertake more technical projects. Therefore, I test the hypothesis that debt capacity during the growth stage of life cycle is affected by New Economy. My empirical analysis covers U.S. companies listed on NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ in the period of 1990-2010. I find that growth firms have significantly smaller debt capacity. Nevertheless, supporting the life cycle theory of financing that emphasizes the adverse selection problem faced by new economy firms, this link tends to be less prominent in the new economy industry. The results complement prior studies that have found significant relationship between firm growth and corporate debt capacity by confirming the important role played by the industry membership (New Economy) in determining the intensity of this relation.