An empiirical research of the determinants of the capitalstructure. A proof applied to Belgium.

The -abundant- literature on the theory of capital structure choice focuses mainly on problems of asymmetric information, agency conflicts, and transmission costs, although some attention has been paid to the impact of government decisions, institutional ownership, and management behaviour as well.A substantial amount of empirical research has been done on the topic. However, the most of the existing studies are cross-sectional analyses of Anglo-Saxon data.The aim of the research is threefold. First, the existing theory will be refined by considering not only the traditional debt-equity choice, but also the use of specific forms of debt. The impact of corporate groups on financing decisions will be modelled as well. Second, an appropriate empirical methodology will be designed. We will use a cross-sectional approach and a time-series approach. Whereas the former is frequently used in the existing literature, the use of the latter is an innovation in this domain. Finally, using corrected Belgian accounting data, the various theories will be verified.