Managerial Ownership and Debt Choice

Abstract This study examines how managerial ownership structure affects the borrower’s choice of private versus public debt using 2,608 firm-year data for 2006-2008. This paper investigates the relationship between managerial ownership structure and debt choice. Managerial ownership is measured using number of stocks and unexercised stock-options and debt is classified public and private debt. The results find that there is a positive association between managerial ownership and the private debt dependence and also find that when firms finance additional funds, higher managerial ownership leads managers to choose private debt not public debt. Since private debt can be classified into bank debt and non bank debt, this paper examines the relationship between managerial ownership and a choice of bank debt. The results indicate that managers with higher ownership are more likely to use bank debt over public debt and non bank debt. By examining the relation between managerial ownership and a debt choice, this paper has following contributions. First, this study shows that managerial ownership affects the choice of the source of financing using three different proxies of managerial ownership. Second, this study classified private debt into bank debt and non-bank debt and provide the evidence of preference toward private debt especially bank debt among other financing sources. Finally, there are extensive studies related to capital structure and managerial ownership, but there is little empirical research on the debt choice and managerial ownership. Thus, this paper adds to literature by exploring the effects of managerial ownership on a debt choice.