High debt companies' leverage determinants in Spain: A quantile regression approach

With a severe debt overhang problem in Spain, either public or private, the analysis of the factors that influence companies' leverage in this country reveals essential, in particular for the high-indebted firms. This study benefits from the quantile regression approach advantages over the OLS method to analyze the leverage determinants for a large sample of companies for the 2001-2011 period depending on their level of indebtedness. This method reveals that for the highly-leveraged companies many factors are no longer significant and that cash flow variable is crucial if the companies would like to decrease their debt levels. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.