The research empirically tests the relationship between earnings volatility
and cost of debt. The population of this research consist of all industries listed in
Indonesian Stock Exchange and ICMD from 2012-2016 year period. Sampling
method chosen is purposive sampling and there are 1,100 samples obtained from
eight industries sector in Indonesia. The researcher used multiple regressions
analysis to test the hypothesis.
The research results shows that EBIT and EBITDA as the proxies for
measuring earnings volatility have positive effect on the cost of debt. Firms’
profitability, liquidity and solvency are the three control variable where
profitability has a negative influence on cost of debt but liquidity and solvency
have non-significant influence on cost of debt. Furthermore, the results of the
study indicate that there is a difference in the effect of earnings volatility on cost
of debt that occurs in each industrial sector in Indonesia based on the Jakarta
Stock Industrial Classification (JASICA) classification. Based on the results, the
industrial sector which has a significant effect between earnings volatility and cost
of debt is agriculture and miscellaneous sector