Recent studies about finance literature, have been dedicated to investigate the relation of market timing and the capital structure, revealing that the effects are not very persistent as time passes, although the tendency of these companies of increasing their capital when their market values are high, they are not constant due to market conditions. Having in mind that the choice of capital structure might be different in emerging countries, just as the Latin American countries, this study had the purpose to identify the effect of market timing in the capital structure of Latin American companies. The methodology used in the research was characterized as descriptive with documental procedures and quantitative approach to the problem. In addition, the method used was regression by panel data and the information for analysis was collected in the financial demonstration reports available on the basis of Thompson®, data from 2006 to 2014. The results showed that the market timing has an influence on the dept decisions of companies from Argentina, Brazil and Peru, while in Chile and Mexico this evidence was not observed. Besides that, the main factors that determine the capital structure of Latin American companies are the profitability, tangibility and GDP. It was also evidenced the influence of the assumptions of the theory of Pecking Order and Static trade-off in choosing the capital structure of these companies. This research contributes to the literature of financial fields when confirming that the choice of capital structure might be different in emerging countries and consequently the influence of market timing as well.
