Title: Stock liquidity and capital structure: evidence from Saudi listed firms

Authors: Yomna Abdulla; Rabab Ebrahim

Addresses: College of Business Administration, University of Bahrain, P.O. Box 32038, Sakhir, Kingdom of Bahrain ' College of Business Administration, University of Bahrain, P.O. Box 32038, Sakhir, Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the impact of stock liquidity on the capital structure of Saudi non-financial firms during the period 2007-2018. Prior literature indicates that firms with more liquid stocks tend to prefer equity over debt, due to their lower cost of equity. Our findings do not support this argument, as we show that stock liquidity has an insignificant effect on leverage. The results persist after accounting for the possible endogeneity of stock liquidity in the leverage model. We also find an insignificant impact of firm size on the relation between stock liquidity and leverage.

Keywords: capital structure; emerging market; leverage; Saudi Arabia; stock liquidity; corporate finance; financial policy; Tadawul; asymmetric information.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEF.2020.107688

International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance, 2020 Vol.13 No.2, pp.111 - 129

Received: 07 Jul 2019
Accepted: 02 Jan 2020
Published online: 08 Jun 2020 *

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