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PRACENAUKOWEUNIWERSYTETUEKONOMICZNEGOWEWROCŁAWIU
RESEARCHPAPERSOFWROCŁAWUNIVERSITYOFECONOMICS
nr2712012
Zarządzaniefinansamifirm-teoriaipraktyka
ISSN1899-3192
TomaszBerent,SebastianJasinowski
WarsawSchoolofEconomics
FINANCIALLEVERAGEPUZZLEPRELIMINARY
CONCLUSIONSFROMLITERATUREREVIEW
Summary:Thepaperreviewsthewayfinancialleverageconceptisdefinedandusedin
booksandresearchpapers.Morethan30financetextbooksfromPolishandforeignauthors
havebeenscreened.Inaddition,over100financeandaccountingpapersrecentlypublishedin
theleadingEnglishfinanceandaccountingjournalshavebeenanalysed.Empiricalresearch
papersaswellastheglossariesoftextbookstendtoidentifyleveragewithdebtorindebted-
ness.Inthisapproach,littleattentionispaidtotheexactformofacapitalstructureratioused.
Inaddition,financebooksdebateleverageinmanyvariouschapters-everytimeviewing
leveragedifferently.Singlemostsurprisingfindingofthepaperisabigdifferencebetween
domesticandforeignattitudetoDFL.
Keywords:leverage,debt,DFL,capitalstructure.
1.Introduction
IntherecentpaperTenMajorQuestionsonLeverage[Berent2011b],theareasof
mostcontroversysurroundingtheconceptoffinancialleveragearedebated.Inpar-
ticular,thepaperstartswiththefollowingdiagnosis:
“Financialleverageisaverypopulartopicamongbothpractitionersandaca-
demics.(…)Itfeaturesthereforenotonlyintheliteratureontheoryoffinancebut
alsoinmaterialsusedinfinancialanalysisandmanagerialaccountingalike.This
interdisciplinarynatureoffinancialleverageisononehandthesourceofitsappeal
butitisalsothesourceofconfusion.Whatmayberegardedaspivotalinunderstan-
dingfinancialleveragetoafinanceprofessormaybelessappealingtoanaccounting
expert.Inmypapersonfinancialleverage,Iusuallyquotetwoauthors,onePolish,
oneAmerican,whodiagnosethestateofourknowledgeonfinancialleveragesur-
prisinglysimilarandthisisdespitethefactthattheirpapersarepublishedalmost
50yearsonefromanother.Inshort,theformercallsthestateofourunderstanding
“conceptualchaos”[Żwirbla2007],theother-“terminologicalconfusion”[Dilbeck
1962].”
Thenthepapergoesontoformulatetenquestionsmentionedinthetitle,e.g.
shouldleveragebeconceivedasavalueneutralconceptornot,phrasedinmarketor