The Influencing Factors of Chinese Corporations’ Leverage

Abstract

Faced with the pressure of economic downturn and structural transformation, high debt leverage has become a prominent problem of China's economic development. This article takes 2007-2018 annual data of non-financial companies listed on A-shares as an example, analyzes the influencing factors of Chinese corporations’ leverage, the empirical results find that macroeconomic environment have a significant impact on corporate debt leverage ratio, and sufficient liquidity is conducive to increasing the willingness of enterprises to expand reproduction and has a positive impact on corporate debt leverage. Financial market factors have a significant impact on corporate debt leverage ratios, the greater the financial institution's support for the real economy, the stronger the company's ability to obtain debt financing. The operation indicators of enterprises have a significant impact on the corporate debt leverage ratios, profitability and leverage ratios have a negative correlation, and this negative correlation is the most significant of all influencing factors.