In developing our hypotheses on the relation between creditor protection and capital structure, we depart from these studies
by focusing on the demand side of the debtor–creditor relation. We posit that, in addition to creditors, managers and shareholders
of debtor firms respond to the extent of legal protection granted to creditors. The degree of creditor protection allowed by a
country's bankruptcy code can place managers and shareholders in a precarious position vis-à-vis creditors, discouraging
corporations from using debt financing. Self-interested managers and shareholders therefore have an incentive to avoid debt if
creditor protection increases the probability of their losing control in the case of bankruptcy. In the capital structure literature,
this demand-side view was first proposed by Rajan and Zingales (1995). Consistent with this view, Vig (2013) shows that strong
creditor protection resulting from financial reforms in India has been accompanied by a reduction in the use of debt financing by
firms. In our cross-country study, we argue that the ability of the demand- and supply-side views to account for corporate
financial policy can be captured by the sign and significance of the effect of creditor protection on the amount of corporate debt
financing across countries. In particular, the supply-side view predicts that creditor protection increases the amount of debt
financing (as it increases the willingness of creditors to provide credit at favorable terms), while the demand-side view predicts
that creditor protection decreases the amount of debt financing. This leads to our primary hypothesis (focusing on the demand
side):