Title: Impact of CEO duality and business education on the cost of debt

Authors: Amarjit Gill; Harvinder S. Mand; John D. Obradovich; Suman Dadhwal

Addresses: Department of Finance and Management Science, Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, 25 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, V7N-5A7, Canada ' University College Dhuri, Constituent Campus of Punjabi University, Patiala, District Sangrur, East Punjab, India ' Liberty University, 1971 University Blvd., Lynchburg, VA, 24502, USA ' Department of Geography, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of CEO duality (CD) and business education (BUS_EDU) of small family business owners on the cost of debt (INT). This study used a survey design to collect data from the owners of unlisted small family business firms in India. The empirical analysis shows that CD and B_EDU decrease the cost of debt. In addition, gender plays a moderating role in the association between BUS_EDU and INT. Further, CD and B_EDU increase the chances of decreasing the cost of debt by 0.70% and 0.50%, respectively. The empirical results contribute to the literature on the impact of CD and B_EDU on the cost of debt. The empirical analysis may be helpful to academia to extend the studies on the impact of CD and B_EDU on the cost of debt.

Keywords: CEO duality; business education; financial leverage; cost of debt; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCG.2023.130761

International Journal of Corporate Governance, 2023 Vol.13 No.3, pp.297 - 314

Received: 07 Aug 2022
Accepted: 19 Dec 2022
Published online: 04 May 2023 *