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Financialleveragepuzzle-preliminaryconclusionsfromliteraturereview
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bookterms,focusedonriskorreturn,viewedexpostorexante,takingtheperspec-
tiveoftotalwealthormerelyitsincreases,calculatedwiththehelpofelasticityor
sensitivityanalysisetc.
OurcurrentpaperunderthetitleborrowedfromtheseminalworkbyMyers
[1984]isanattempttoprovidetheintroductoryreviewoftheleverageliterature
frombothPolishandinternationalperspectiveandbydoingsotoprovidethefirst
pieceintheaforementionedpuzzle.Welookatseveralfinancetextbooksandmanu-
als(section2)aswellasmorethan100paperspublishedinrecentyearsinleading
English-languagefinanceandaccountingjournals(section3).
Giventhe“popularity”offinancialleverageconcept,thelistisbynomeans
exhaustive.Yet,evenbasedonthematerialcollected,weareabletoformulatesome
important,althoughstillpreliminary,conclusions.Notethepapermerelysummari-
zestheliteratureratherthanourviewontheissue.Wherenecessarywealsoreferto
ourwork.
2.Financialleverageinbooks
Wehavestudiedthetreatmentoffinancialleveragebymorethan30variousfinance
textbooksandmanuals:equallyspreadbetweenEnglishandPolishauthors.Some
booksintroduceleverageintheformofaverbaldefinition,othersprovidealgebraic
formulas.Somepresenttheconceptintheformofnumericalexamplesand/orgra-
phs,othersneitherdefinenorformallyintroduceleveragebutsimplyusetheword
leverageinthetext.Manyauthorsprovidemorethanonewayinwhichtheyunder-
standit,pointingexplicitlytothedifferencesinperspectivesproposed.Anothergro-
upintroducesvariousapproacheswithoutaclearexplanationofinternalinconsisten-
ciespresentintheirexposition.
Aftersomescrutinyoftheproposalsstudied,webelievegroupingvariousappro-
achestoleverageintojustfiveblocksisjustified.Justlikeeveryattempttoprovide
ageneralclassificationisboundtobearbitrarywithdemarcationlinesoftenblurred,
theproposeddistinctionhasaclearadvantageinthatitaddressesheadonthedilem-
maspresentintheconceptofleverageandhintedalreadyinBerent’sTenQuestions
onLeverage.Thefivegroupsareasfollows:
•
leverageascapitalstructure,
•
leverageasDFL(degreeoffinancialleverage),
•
leverageasthemagnificationofreturnlevels,
•
leverageasthemagnificationofrisk,
•
leverageastheimpactonreturnsdistribution.
2.1.Leverageascapitalstructure
LeverageinEnglishisoftentakentomeansimplydebtordebtpresenceinthecapi-
talstructure.Belowtherearejustfewexamplesofhowtheglossariesattachedto
majorfinancetextbooksdefinefinancialleverage:“Theextenttowhichfixed-
