Determinants of debt maturity structure across firm size

Resumen

This study examines the empirical determinants of debt maturity structure across the size of Spanish firms using panel data. Our evidence offers support for the relevance of size, asymmetric information and asset to maturity to explain the debt maturity structure. There is no support for the prediction that debt maturity is inversely related to proxies for growth opportunities. The findings are not significantly different to those for US firms. The paper also provides evidence relative to the differences of the explanations according to the firm size. It is shown that debt maturity in small firms is higher when the slope of the interest rate term structure increases and for very low-risk and very risky firms.