Testing the Pecking Order Theory for brazilian publicly listed companies
inancial Economics; Capital Structure; Leverage
An important area of finance literature deals with the capital structure of companies. One of the main theories in this line of research is the Pecking Order Theory. It establishes a hierarchy of preference for companies among the possible sources of funding for their activities. According to the theory, companies prefer to finance themselves with their own resources, followed by issuing debt and, lastly, by issuing shares. The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the Pecking Order Theory for brazilian publicly traded companies listed on B3, the main brazilian stock exchange, between 1995 and 2022. The theory was analyzed for different company sizes and different characteristics, such as participation in B3's Novo Mercado, listing of ADRs and state participation as the main shareholder.