To date. there has been little empirical analysis of the cross-sectional structure
of corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies. Although much
effort has been devoted to developing the theory of these basic corporate
policies, empirical support for the models is largely anecdotal. Our primary
objective in this paper is to examine whether there are robust empirical relations
among corporate policy decisions and various firm characteristics. We believe
a more balanced interaction between theory and testing in corporate finance
will produce richer models and more powerful econometric methods of data
analysis.
A model of the cross-sectional variation in corporate policies requires specification
of the exogenous variables that drive policy selection. Many potential
variables vary over time, but not across firms. For example, all firms have access
to the same contracting technology (e.g., sinking funds, dividend covenants,