Title: Market timing and the corporate debt maturity choice: the case of Tunisian and French firms

Authors: Khemaies Bougatef; Jameleddine Chichti

Addresses: Business School of Tunis (ESCT), Manouba University, Campus Universitaire de la Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia. ' Business School of Tunis (ESCT), Manouba University, Campus Universitaire de la Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the determinants of corporate debt maturity structure using a panel of Tunisian and French listed firms. Specifically, we focus on the relevance of market timing considerations on the choice between short- and long-term debts. We find that market timing has no significant impact on the debt maturity choice. We document also that debt maturity is positively related to asset maturity and leverage. The portion of long-term debt decreases with growth opportunities, profitability and size.

Keywords: debt maturity; debt market timing; term spread; panel data; Tunisia; France; corporate debt; long-term debt; growth opportunities; profitability; firm size.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAF.2011.043844

International Journal of Accounting and Finance, 2011 Vol.3 No.2, pp.131 - 146

Received: 16 Oct 2010
Accepted: 06 Jun 2011
Published online: 21 Oct 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article