Title: Do ownership structure and quality of financial information affect the cost of debt of Tunisian listing firms?

Authors: Aida Sy; Lamia Jamel; Abdelkader Derbali

Addresses: Department of Business Management, Farmingdale State College, State University of New York, School of Business Building, Room 307, 2350 Broadhollow Road Farmingdale, New York 11735, USA ' Department of Economics, Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management of Sousse, Sousse University, Tunisia ' Department of Finance, Higher Institute of Management of Sousse, University of Sousse, 22 street Zarkaa Al Yamama, Erriadh City, Sousse 4023, Tunisia

Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to investigate empirically the relationship between the boards with other internal governance mechanisms such as ownership structure, quality of financial information and the cost of debt. To do so, we use a sample of 28 Tunisian listing firms during the period from 2007-2015. The empirical results show that the ownership structure and the quality of financial information have an important role in determining the characteristics of the cost of debt. The results also indicate that the cost of debt is related positively with factors from the boards of directors, to the size of the listing firms and negatively to the institutional participation on the capital of firm.

Keywords: corporate governance; board of directors; ownership structure; cost of debt; Tunisia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCA.2017.084891

International Journal of Critical Accounting, 2017 Vol.9 No.2, pp.140 - 153

Received: 02 May 2016
Accepted: 04 Oct 2016

Published online: 08 Jul 2017 *

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