The Capital Structure Puzzle

Abstract

The finance and economics literature has at least three "managerial" strands: (1) descriptions of managerial capitalism, in which the separation of ownership and control is taken as a central fact of life, for example Berle and Means [5]; (2) agency theory, pioneered for finance by Jensen and Meckling [18], and (3) the detailed analysis of the personal risks and rewards facing managers and how their responses affect firms' financing or investment choices.For examples of Strand (3), see Ross's articles on financial signalling [36, 37]. 2 Put forward in "Debt and Taxes," [27], esp.pp.272-273.Note that Miller did not claim that all of firms' financing habits are neutral mutations, only that some of them may be.I doubt that Miller intended this idea as a strict null hypothesis (see below).