My thesis examines the link between firm characteristics and the usage of steel futures working
with annual data from 1,536 steel-related companies’ between 2003 and 2015. I use fixed
effects regression with binary response to estimate a firm’s likelihood of using steel futures.
The chance of using steel futures for firms with a high degree of steel exposure relative to less
steel exposed ones, is significantly positively affected by firm size, leverage, debt structure,
return on assets and investment grade
