To test the prediction in H3a, we run regressions that evaluate the effect of creditor rights on the change in the amount of
long-term debt from year t to year t + 1 scaled by total assets in year t (ΔLT Debt/TA). In this regression we use the control
variables of Model 4 of Table 2. Panel A of Table 5 reports the results, both for the creditor rights index and its four
components. The regression results show that Creditor Rights has a significantly negative effect on ΔLT Debt/TA in Model 1. In
addition, all individual components of the creditor rights index show significantly (at the 1% level) negative effects in
Models 2 through 5. Hence, firms appear to be less willing to issue long-term debt when facing strong creditor protection,
reinforcing our earlier evidence that capital structure decisions are significantly influenced by demand-side forces in the
debtor–creditor relationship.