The effect of debt on corporate profitability : Evidence from French service sector

Current study aims to provide new empirical evidence on the impact of debt on corporate profitability. This impact can be explained by three essential theories: signaling theory, tax theory and the agency cost theory. Using panel data sample of 2240 French non listed companies of service sector during 1999-2006. By utilizing generalized method of moments (GMM) econometric technique on three measures of profitability ratio (PROF1, PROF2 and ROA), we show that debt ratio has no effect on corporate profitability, regardless of the size of company (VSEs, SMEs or LEs

The Political Economy of FDI flows into Developing Countries: Does the depth of International Trade Agreements Matter?

There is considerable debate whether the domestic political institutions (specifically, the country s level of democracy) of the host developing country toward foreign investors are effective in establishing the credibility of commitments are still underway, researchers have also analyzed the effect of international institutions such as (GATT-WTO) membership and Bilateral Investment treaties (BIT) in their role of establishing the credibility of commitment to attract foreign investments. We argue that there are qualitative differences among various types of trade agreements and full-fledged trade agreements (FTA-CU) provide credibility to foreign investors and democracy level in the host country conditions this effect whereas the partial scope agreements (PSA) are not sufficient in providing credibility of commitments and not moderated by democracy. This paper analyses the impact of heterogeneous TAs, and their interaction with domestic institutions, on FDI inflows. Statistical analyses for 122 developing countries from 1970 to 2005 support this argument. The method adopted relies on fixed effects estimator which is robust to control endogeneity on a large panel dataset. The strict erogeneity of results by using a method suggested by Baier and Bergstrand (2007) and no feedback effect found in sample. The results state that (1) More the FTA-CU concluded, larger the amount of FDI inflows are attracted into the developing countries and PSA are insignificant in determining the FDI inflow; (2) FTA CU are complementary to democratic regime whereas the conditional effect of PSA with democracy on levels of FDI inflows is insignificant.Comment: University of Orleans (France

La structure du capital et la profitabilité : Le cas des entreprises industrielles françaises

The objective of this article is to analyze the impact of capital structure on profitability. This impact can be explained by three essential theories: signaling theory, tax theory and the agency costs theory. A sample of 1846 French industrial firms are taken over the period 1999-2006, as a dynamic panel study by using the generalized method of moments (GMM). We show that capital structure has no influence on the profitability of French firms, regardless the size of the company. L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser l’impact de la structure du capital sur la profitabilité. Cet impact peut être expliqué par trois théories essentielles: la théorie du signal, l’influence de la fiscalité et la théorie de l’agence. Nous montrons, à partir d’un échantillon de 1846 entreprises industrielles françaises prises sur la période 1999-2006, à l’aide d’une étude sur panel dynamique en utilisant la méthode des moments généralisée (GMM), que la structure du capital n’a aucune influence sur la profitabilité des entreprises françaises quelle que soit la taille de l’entreprise

La structure du capital et la profitabilité Une étude empirique sur données de panel françaises

The objective of this article is to analyze the impact of capital structure on profitability. This impact can be explained by three essential theories: signaling theory, tax theory and the agency costs theory. From a sample of 9136 firms distributed on seven sectors taken over the period 1999-2006 by means of a study on dynamic panel by using the generalized method of moments (GMM), we show that there exists heterogeneity of behavior between sectors regarding the impact of capital structure on profitability. The empirical analysis allowed us to distinguish three different groups of sectors: for the first group (industry, energy and service), the capital structure has no impact on profitability. The second group, containing only the transport sector, is the group where the debt affects negatively the profitability in a linear way. The last group (agro-food, construction and trade) is characterized by the presence of a negative effect in a linear and nonlinear way

The effect of debt on corporate profitability: Evidence from French service sector

Current study aims to provide new empirical evidence on the impact of debt on corporate profitability. This impact can be explained by three essential theories: signaling theory, tax theory and the agency cost theory. Using panel data sample of 2240 French non listed companies of service sector during 1999-2006. By utilizing generalized method of moments (GMM) econometric technique on three measures of profitability ratio (PROF1, PROF2 and ROA), we show that debt ratio has no effect on corporate profitability, regardless of the size of company (VSEs, SMEs or LEs)

La structure du capital et la profitabilité : Le cas des entreprises industrielles françaises

The objective of this article is to analyze the impact of capital structure on profitability. This impact can be explained by three essential theories: signaling theory, tax theory and the agency costs theory. A sample of 1846 French industrial firms are taken over the period 1999-2006, as a dynamic panel study by using the generalized method of moments (GMM). We show that capital structure has no influence on the profitability of French firms, regardless the size of the company. L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser l’impact de la structure du capital sur la profitabilité. Cet impact peut être expliqué par trois théories essentielles: la théorie du signal, l’influence de la fiscalité et la théorie de l’agence. Nous montrons, à partir d’un échantillon de 1846 entreprises industrielles françaises prises sur la période 1999-2006, à l’aide d’une étude sur panel dynamique en utilisant la méthode des moments généralisée (GMM), que la structure du capital n’a aucune influence sur la profitabilité des entreprises françaises quelle que soit la taille de l’entreprise

L’ENDETTEMENT AFFECTE-T-IL LA PROFITABILITÉ? LE CAS DES FIRMES AGRO-ALIMENTAIRES FRANÇAISES

This article aims to expand existing empirical knowledge on the impact of debt level on profitability of companies. We analyze a sample of 568 unlisted French companies (Agro-food sector) spanning over a period of 1999 to 2006. We show, by using the generalized method of moments (GMM), that debt affects negatively on the profitability, but this effect is negligible and sometimes insignificant according to the ratio of profitability used (Prof1, Prof2 or ROA). Furthermore, we find existence of non-linear relationship (concave curve) between level of debt and profitability, but this non-linear impact is validated only in the case of very small enterprises

Does debt affect profitability? An empirical study of French trade sector

This article aims to expand existing empirical knowledge on the impact of debt level on profitability of companies. We analyze a sample of an unbalanced panel of 2325 unlisted French companies of trade sector spanning over a period of 1999 to 2006. By using the generalized method of moments (GMM), we show that the debt affects negatively the profitability, not only linearly, but also, in a non-linear (concave) way. However, while analyzing according to different size classes (VSEs, SMEs and LEs); we find that the linear negative effect becomes larger and the non-linear effect is significant only in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)

L’ENDETTEMENT AFFECTE-T-IL LA PROFITABILITÉ? LE CAS DES FIRMES AGRO-ALIMENTAIRES FRANÇAISES

This article aims to expand existing empirical knowledge on the impact of debt level on profitability of companies. We analyze a sample of 568 unlisted French companies (Agro-food sector) spanning over a period of 1999 to 2006. We show, by using the generalized method of moments (GMM), that debt affects negatively on the profitability, but this effect is negligible and sometimes insignificant according to the ratio of profitability used (Prof1, Prof2 or ROA). Furthermore, we find existence of non-linear relationship (concave curve) between level of debt and profitability, but this non-linear impact is validated only in the case of very small enterprises